Funmurphys: the Blog

Knee-jerk Is Just That

I respect Phil Carter; when he says check out this book", I hit the St. Louis County Library website and reserve it. But he didn't think something through the other day:

McCain grills Rumsfeld: Sen. John McCain's audition for a job in the U.S. Attorney's office went quite well, in my opinion. He asked simple, direct questions like "What is the chain of command from the guards to you, Sec. Rumsfeld?" and "What were the guards' orders?" These questions are critical. Anyone who's been through basic training can tell you that one of the first things you learn is your chain of command, from you to the President. Moreover, every recruit learns the general orders of a sentry, and learns that knowing one's orders is critical to mission success. Yet, Secretary Rumsfeld could not answer either simple question. He tapdanced around the question, but ultimately, never gave Sen. McCain an answer as to the line of command from PV2 Joe Snuffy up to the Secretary of Defense. PV2 Snuffy has to know that; shouldn't the SecDef? That's bad."

Think a minute, Phil, about the claim that Rumsfeld should know the chain of command of every soldier in Iraq. It's one thing for a soldier to know his chain of command because there is only one, but we've got 135,000 soldiers in Iraq, and for Rumsfeld to know the chain of command for every single one of them, well, he'd be superhuman beyond the wildest dreams of the most ardent Rummy-lover. What he needs to know is what his direct reports are responsible for, and who is responsible for what among those who report to his direct reports. That's really all he should know generally about the chain of command below him. Ditto for orders. Anything more than that is micro management.

Posted by Kevin Murphy at May 11, 2004 12:33 PM | War On Terror