Rumsfeld's Cluetrain Memo

The "leaked" memo from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has given the media more to analyze than a man going over Niagra Falls or a Cub's fan trying to catch a foul ball. When I first read the memo the other day I couldn't help but think it was something straight out of The Cluetrain Manifesto. Finally you see someone not just being a talking head. Someone actually thinking and not spinning. Then I caught the political talk shows that evening and discovered the media clowns completely missed the cluetrain.

Most of these talking heads couldn't even get past Rumsfeld's "Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror?" question. (And it was a question, not some admission or rhetorical remark.) It is more of the same gotcha game they use to fill hours of programming on a tiny piece of a much larger issue. Overlooked of course is the real insight offered by the memo that the Department of Defense needs to change.

"DoD has been organized, trained and equipped to fight big armies, navies and air forces. It is not possible to change DoD fast enough to successfully fight the global war on terror; an alternative might be to try to fashion a new institution, either within DoD or elsewhere — one that seamlessly focuses the capabilities of several departments and agencies on this key problem." - Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

That statement brought to mind the opening chapter of Tom Peter's new book, Re-imagine!. Peters says this is exactly the kind of new thinking that Rummy has brought to the DoD since his first day on the job. It's also the reason why a lot of the military brass don't care for him. Everyone likes change. No one likes changing. This is not the Cold War and everything about how wars are going to be fought has to change.

Instead of encouraging debate over the best way to fight terrorism the politicians have used the memo as an admission of failure, in between giving themselves another pay raise. And you wonder why this stuff never sees the light of day?

"Secretary Rumsfeld's comments are an illustration of the concern that they have about the failure of their policies in Iraq so far. There can be no other description of those words than that." - Senator Tom Daschle

Oh really? I suppose Sen. Daschle is right about the need for better schools in this country because his reading comprehension stinks. Unless of course you want to pick and choose words and phrases to mean what you want them to mean. This is exactly the kind of stuff that makes people tune-out of politics. You have pundits and politicians telegraphing their moves so blatantly that it's laughable.

From where I sit the best response by anyone would have been to applaud Rummy's memo. Obviously things are not working as well as we would like in Iraq. (This is not a news flash to anyone.) So let's get our minds churning on how we might have to change tactics. In fact, perhaps this is further evidence that we really really really need to reshape the military to fight a new kind of war. That is a message that people can get behind. Turning it into a defeatist message and a blame game is more of the typical election spin cycle. And we all know that will not solve the problem.