Posted by
Reeson on Tuesday, September 09, 2008 2:39:23 PM
Dr. Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute wrote in an issue brief today that not only are Senators Barack Obama and John McCain surprisingly close in their policies for U.S. national security, but that both presidential candidates “…see future security challenges pretty much the same way Donald Rumsfeld did.”
In “Rumsfeld Was Right: Candidates Embrace Bush Worldview,” Thompson begins by recounting a speech given at the Citadel by then-candidate George W. Bush. In the speech, Thompson recalls, Bush laid out three goals he would pursue if he was elected to the presidency: to renew the bond of trust between the American president and the American military, to defend the American people against missiles and terror, and to begin creating the military of the next century.
It is Bush’s last goal that Thompson focuses on in making his case. The principles promoted by Bush’s first Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, for transforming the military to meet the threats of the next century were as follows (listed in this order by Thompson): Defeat asymmetric threats; optimize intelligence; bolster homeland security; build global partnerships; improve counter-insurgency skills; integrate military and non-military instruments; become better at stability operations; and, reform Pentagon processes.
According to Thompson’s analysis, which draws on statements from the candidates, “The key security initiatives favored by both Senator McCain and Senator Obama echo the assumptions of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld worldview.”
With respect to McCain, Thompson says the Republican presidential candidate “…differs with Pentagon policy under Rumsfeld in wanting to increase the size of the military. But most of his security priorities are in tune with the Bush approach to transformation, stressing improved homeland security against terrorists and missile attack, better intelligence, more funding for unconventional warfare skills and ‘working with friend and partners overseas.’”
With respect to Senator Obama, Thompson says the Democratic presidential candidate “…seems to agree with all of these views. He says ‘we must meet the full-spectrum needs of the new century, not simply recreate the military of the Cold War era.’” Thompson goes on to write that Obama also calls “…for funding of special operations forces, information operations and, surprisingly, missile defense.” Obama also “…endorses Bush’s call for a bigger military” and advocated structuring our military capabilities for both conventional war and non-standard military operations. Thompson then states that Obama’s “…positions on cyber warfare, rebuilding global partnerships and reforming the acquisition process all sound similar to those of McCain.”
He concludes his analysis by saying, “More strikingly, both candidates sound like they think Bush and Rumsfeld were right about what the future requires, even if Iraq was a mistake.”
One can’t help but wonder how the candidates would respond if they were told they shared some views with Donald Rumsfeld.