Rummie’s memo on the progress in the war on terror and Iraq, displays a level of candor typically unassociated with this Administration.
Strike 1: We are having mixed results with Al Qaida, although we have put considerable pressure on them — nonetheless, a great many remain at large.
Strike 2: Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror. Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?
Strike 3: Is our current situation such that “the harder we work, the behinder we get”?
Rummie plainly feels, and is willing to discuss internally, the truth that despite any military might the U.S. has, all the spin in the world doesn’t change the fact that we’re not winning the war on terror and we’re not addressing some of the core issues. In fact, his memo argues that the U.S. military, in its current form, isn’t even properly equiped to do this!
Slate takes much the same viewpoint, with the conclusion that Rumsfeld’s memo makes plain that our top officials suffer no illusions about the war. They are trying only to sell illusions to the rest of us. The leaking of Rumsfeld’s memo puts a tailspin on the sales pitch.