When the nation’s governors visit DC later this month for the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association, many want to speak with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Unfortunately, Rummy doesn’t want to return their phone calls.
The governors want to talk to Rumsfeld about his plans for National Guard troop reduction. The Pentagon’s response has been that the secretary is busy managing hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan and has no time for a long gab session with governors.
While governors theoretically are in command of the National Guard, the real control is exercised by the Department of Defense. Governors are grateful for their annual visit to the White House to see the president, but they would much rather go to the Pentagon to talk National Guard business with Rumsfeld.
It’s one of the under-reported angles to the war. National Guard and Reserve soldiers are usually in the states, responding to domestic emergencies and receiving orders by governors. Now, of course, many “citizen soldiers” are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many governors want to get a sense of when they’ll come home.
Rumsfeld won’t even talk to these governors? I suppose it’s little solace to them that we go to war with the Defense Secretary we have, not the Defense Secretary we’d like to have.