That's basically the impression I
took away from reading Without
Hesitation, the memoirs of retired Gen. Hugh Shelton, who was chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001. Boy is he steamed.
There are plenty of other people
Shelton pings in the book, most notably John McCain. But the unquestionable No.
1 villain of the book is the former secretary of defense who, in Shelton's
telling, elevated his old Princeton wrestling techniques into a management
philosophy. "The McNamara-Rumsfeld model," as Shelton calls it, was "based on
deception, deceit, working political agendas, and trying to get the Joint
Chiefs to support an action that might not be the right thing to do for the
country but would work well for the President from a political standpoint."
(401) (As an experiment, I'm including page numbers -- should I continue doing
this in future book discussions?) He adds, "It was the worst style of leadership
I witnessed in 38 years of service." (413)
After his first meeting with
Rumsfeld, Shelton recalls thinking, "We're going to need some heavy-duty
cleaning supplies if all we're going to do is waste time having pissing
contests like this." (407) When Rumsfeld was proven wrong in a meeting, Shelton
says, he wouldn't admit it, but rather would press on and do "his best to stay
afloat amid the bullshit he was shoveling out." (413)
At one point, Rumsfeld utterly
rejected a plan for how to deal with Iraqi attacks on U.S. warplanes in the old
"no-fly zones." Shelton liked the plan how it was, so when ordered to revamp
it, he let it sit on his desk for a couple of weeks, and then sent it back to
the defense secretary with a new label on it: "Rumsfeld Auto-Response Matrix."
"He loved every word of it," Shelton reports with unconcealed contempt. (424)
This book is different from other
senior generals' memoirs I've read, such as those by Colin Powell, Norman
Schwarzkopf, and Tommy R. Franks. Hugh Shelton's telling stories and naming
names. The first half of the book is a rather dull account of his earlier
career, but that changes in his relation of his last year as chairman of the
Joint Chiefs, in 2001.
Overall,
Shelton comes off like a good soldier and a decent and honorable man, but
inexperienced in the ways of Washington, and so a bit of a babe in the woods
when it comes to politics. I blame this situation on civilian officials,
Democratic and Republican alike, who were so scared of the political clout that
Colin Powell accumulated that they have picked a series of political
non-starters as chairmen: Shalikashvili (his pop fought for the Nazis), Shelton
(naïve about Washington), Myers and Pace (the two most pliable senior officers
of recent memory). Admiral Mullen is proving to be an exception -- he stands up
for himself, yet isn't trying to move into the political realm. I am not sure
President Obama and his aides appreciate this.
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