in his own words.
more analysis…

Rumsfeld at this point was sidestepping a bitter truth. There has been for some time now a word floating around the political lexicon: “Chickenhawk.” The accepted definition of the word is, “One who tends to advocate, or are fervent supporters of those who advocate, military solutions to political problems, and who have personally declined to take advantage of a significant opportunity to serve in uniform during wartime.” Notable administration officials Dick Cheney, Andrew Card, Richard Perle, Elliot Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, John Ashcroft, and Karl Rove all came of age during the Vietnam war. Each and every single one of them found a way to avoid service. Each of these man has, in the last several months, gone out of their way to push hard for military solutions to political problems.

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By John Tagliabue for the New York Times.

In a blunt rejection of American impatience toward Baghdad, the leaders of France and Germany said today that they shared common views on Iraq, and that any Security Council resolution for military action would have to await the report of United Nations weapon inspectors.
“War is always the admission of defeat and is always the worst of solutions,” President Jacques Chirac of France said. “And hence everything must be done to avoid it.”
He added, “France and Germany have a judgment on this crisis that is the same.”
Chancellor Gerhard Schr

From Rumsfeld Smears Veterans, Extends Marines’ Enlistments (Rumsfeld, an ugly smear and a giant fib)
By Mark Shields for CNN.

Now to Rumsfeld’s fiction about the all-volunteer service. Asked about legislation introduced to re-institute the draft on the eve of war, Rumsfeld was emphatic: “We’re not going to re-implement the draft. There is no need for it at all. … We have people serving today — God bless ’em — because they volunteered. They want to be doing what it is they’re doing.”
Sounds good, except that it is not true. Two days after these unequivocal words, the United States Marine Corps — which reports to the secretary of defense — froze for the next 12 months every one of its 174,312 members currently on active duty. Marines who had completed their voluntary enlistments or their 20 years and had chosen to return to civilian life or retirement will instead remain, involuntarily, in the service.
Marines being Marines, they will answer their country’s call. But let us be clear: This action, along with other more limited freezes affecting other thousands in uniform imposed by the other services, means the volunteer U.S. military is no longer all-volunteer.
The unavoidable question that now must be answered by Rumsfeld and the president is not whether Americans ought to be “drafted” to defend the country, because we are already doing that, but exactly which Americans will be drafted.

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