Silver lining?

Well, maybe…

But across the Pentagon, officials acknowledge that the twin tasks of building Iraqi security forces and defeating the insurgency stand in the way of Mr. Rumsfeld's longstanding ambitions to fundamentally transform the nation's military into something leaner, more agile and thoroughly modern. Success in Iraq would allow troop withdrawals to begin, relieving strains on budgets and personnel.

It's not that the US military doesn't have a need to restructure and reform, but the Rumsfeld approach, which radically devalues the role of ground soldiers, emphasizes privatization of essential support functions and overstates the value of high tech weapons systems isn't the way to do it. I think the inability of the Rumsfeld DoD to deploy an adequate force in a nickel and dime war like Iraq, both in terms of troop strength and material support, provides more than enough evidence of that.

Of course, Rummy's working the system for the long term, whether he hangs around or not.

Mr. Rumsfeld works hard to leave his imprint on the bureaucracy, spending up to 10 hours a week on senior officer and civilian appointments. He has seeded like-minded protégés throughout the military's senior ranks to ensure that his priorities outlast him. He routinely reaches down to interview one-star and two-star officers for important jobs, a practice that some officers deride as a politically motivated "Rumsfeld sniff test."

In other words, whether he lasts three more months or three more years, Rumsfeld's determined to leave behind a generation of General officers whose positions and promotions have been predicated on their devotion to a particular ideological approach to defense planning, saddling future administrations with his philosophical clones. Challenge him and you can find a 20 or 30 year career, no matter how exemplary, at an abrupt dead end.

Damn, I hate what they've done to my Army…and my dad and brother's Marine Corps…and my buddy's Navy…

Hell, to the whole damn country.