Oct. 22 - Following is the text of the memo in which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld questions whether the United States is doing enough to win the war on terrorism. It was obtained Wednesday by NBC News.
Oct. 16, 2003
TO: Gen. Dick Myers, Paul Wolfowitz, Gen. Pete Pace, Doug Feith
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT: Global War on Terrorism
The questions I posed to combatant commanders this week were: Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror? Is DoD changing fast enough to deal with the new 21st century security environment? Can a big institution change fast enough? Is the USG changing fast enough?
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.
I think we need to look "out of the box" for innovative solutions here. Specifically, I'm thinking we ought to look at the possibilities of modeling our proposed new organization along the lines of one or more of the following:
--Justice League: Do yeoman work battling crime and supervillains. Make flexible and innovative use of high-tech, possibly mutant and/or extraterrestrial capabilities. Pros: High-profile work and high poll numbers would play well in press. Cons: Mutant capabilities may be hard to replicate.
--Mafia: Well-organized, highly-efficient, intensely loyal, and capable of striking out against enemies quickly and with lethal force. Pros: Heavy Catholic influence leaves little room for Muslim sympathies. Cons: Problem of luring al-Qaeda to Italian bistros in Brooklyn for hits. Resistance of Mafiosi to government paperwork.
--Argentine Death Squads: Experienced in rooting out covert networks of subversion and terror. Pro: Willingness to kill, proficient in use of torture for information-gathering. Cons: emotional attachment to Ford Falcons makes them easy to spot. Bungled Falklands war suggests better at picking on civilians than actual fighting.
--Al-Qaeda: Proven ability to coordinate global informal networks with small footprint. Pros: Members display fanatical loyalty, unhesitating willingness to kill. Cons: Speak some kind of foreign jibber-jabber we don't understand, plus killed thousands of Americans.
Remember, Kids, the part in bold is actual 100% news-flavored media product.
The rest is the fakey part.
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