How to ruin a great army? See Donald Rumsfeld

[donsu]

http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/6857211.htm

Armies are fragile institutions, and for all their might, easily broken.

It took the better part of 20 years to rebuild the Army from the wreckage of Vietnam. With the hard work of a generation of young officers, blooded in Vietnam and determined that the mistake would never be repeated, a new Army rose Phoenix-like from the ashes of the old, now perhaps the finest Army in history.

In just over three years, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and his civilian aides have done just about everything they could to destroy that Army.

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How do you break an army?

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• You can work it to death.
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• You can neglect its training and education.
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• You can politicize the Army promotion system for three- and four-star generals.
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• You can decide that you've discovered a newer, cheaper way of fighting and winning America's wars.
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Another defense secretary who could not admit he'd erred was Robert Strange McNamara, who, like Rumsfeld, was recruited from corporate America. By the time he did, it was too late.
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