18 Years After 9.11.2001......................from Rico

I was overseas, and making one of my very rare stays at a BOQ [fyi: Bachelor Officer's Quarters] on a military base somewhere, up at 'O-my-God-it's early' preparing for what was supposed to be a major 'secret squirrel' meeting that day.

 

While caffeinating myself, I was watching an AFN [fyi: Armed Forces Network] re-broadcast of SecDef Rumsfeld's 9.10 speech to the Pentagon. It was memorable, not least for watching the assembled brass 'squirm' in their seats, as he talked about waste, a 15% cut in the fat and a shift from 'tail to tooth.'

- Here is a snapshot of what I recall of his words: 

"...an adversary poses a serious threat to the USA...it's the Pentagon bureaucracy...the processes...the system...duplicative duties and bloated bureaucratic gridlock...we need to save it (the Pentagon) from itself...the taxpayers deserve better.

- We much change - the world has - and we have not.

...there is a general counsel [read: lawyer] just to coordinate the other general counsels [fyi: DoD, each service, every agency, the JCS all have general counsels].

...DoD has THREE different 'exchange' programs [fyi: general stores/Walmart's for service members].

...one out of every five naval officers is a physician."

------------broadcast interrupted for live coverage---------

 

At this point live coverage of the events of 9.11 preempted all AFN coverage, including Rumsfeld's speech which I think is even more apt and pertinent today then it was then.

- I don't remember much of the 'important' meeting I attended later that day, as it had no import compared to what had just happened in NYC.

 

And WHAT do we have to 'show' for 9.11.2001 18 years later on? Nothing good that I can think of.

- America has LESS freedom [think: the unpatriotic "Patriot Act" etc] and new mosques sprouting like mushrooms in America.