Iraq II: A Closer Look at Rummy's Reign of Error

The Iraq war certainly has been the elephant in the room during Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's six-year Reign of Error, but as the door hits him in the ass on the way out of the Pentagon it is worth noting a couple of other things:

REFORMING THE PENTAGON

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, of course, but Rumsfeld deserves some credit for trying for reform a hidebound and change-averse Pentagon bureaucracy.

Rumsfeld demanded that the brass cut down its wish list for gadzillion dollar defense systems and tried to wean them from the notion that the military must have the resources to fight two major wars simultaneously.

But he has only himself to blame for his failure to make major reforms and his disastrous "war on the cheap" strategy in Iraq -- relective of his view that the military needed to be leaner and meaner -- undercut the entire mission from Day One.

THE WAR ON TERROR

Given the Mess in Mesopotamia, it's easy to forget that Rumsfeld also botched the other big war on his watch.

Beyond plucking defeat from the jaws of near victory by starving the military mission in Afghanistan, his prosecution of the War on Terror was laughably inept because he never was able to articulate a strategic vision.

To make matters worse, he disdained diplomacy and bullied the State Department and intelligence agencies, which should be equal players in pushing back against the Islamic jihad.

Rumsfeld's parting description of the Iraq war at a press conference with The Decider said it all:

"It is a little understood, unfamiliar war" that is "complex for people to comprehend."

In the end, of course, it was Rumsfeld who was uncomprehending.