Donald Rumsfeld, Coalition Builder

Among elite opinion's favorite cliche's is that Donald Rumsfeld is a rogue who alienates allies and potential allies around the world. The truth is quite different.

Aside from kicking terrorist ass, Donald Rumsfeld has organized joint cooperative military agreements with countries around the world, to the benefit of the people living in those countries as well as our own.

"Joint exercises give each military a better understanding of the others' tactics and abilities. More importantly, mid- and high-level officers make personal connections with their counterparts in other militaries. This opens up lines of back-channel communications, increases the chance for shared intelligence, and eases the complex task of joint combat operations. The mission in Thailand next month won't directly involve counterterrorism training, but the lessons learned will certainly be applied to the fight against al Qaeda.


All this makes it easier for the U.S. to assemble ad hoc coalitions to target specific threats. Even in larger operations, in which the U.S. does most of the fighting, a good understanding of an allied military capability helps in forming coalitions. Few nations can send frontline troops, but some allies can help by augmenting medical or communications capabilities, for example. One reason why the Pentagon felt confident going to war in Iraq without the French and Germans is that the war planners knew from such experience that the coalition was strong enough without them."