Chapter 6, Part 1 Summary

The Pentagon's first reaction was anger when there were supply-line and reinforcement issues during the first week of the Iraq war in mid-March, 2003. Donald Rumsfeld had supposedly taken over the day-to-day running of the war, to the point where he overruled the military repeatedly. He also reduced ground troops numerous times, to where the forces' effectiveness was severely curtailed. Pentagon officials were shocked when Rumsfeld refused to use the Pentagon's centralized planning tool, the 'time-phased forces deployment list.' The military is a very inefficient organization—redundancies are necessary for its proper function. Rumsfeld wanted to streamline the operation, based on the first Gulf War. When TPFDL recommended a minimum of four army divisions, Rumsfeld rejected it as "too big." He felt one division plus air power could do the job. Several Joint Staff members who disagreed were replaced by officers...