Room Temperature: Robert Strange McNamara

Wherever he ends up, Robert McNamara will be greeted by the ghosts of soldiers--on both sides--he led to slaughter; by the piles of arms, legs, and minds of the maimed; and by the wives, children, fathers, mothers and siblings of those soldiers. If there is such a thing as divine justice, he will spend eternity reflecting on the havoc he wrecked. I watched him in his mea culpa, "Fog of War". It was chilling, he learned nothing. He is one of those people of whom it can be said, "Better he had never been born."

I best remember him for his ill advised and not particularly intelligent cost cutting measures such as cutting the half sizes out of boots in supply, and the greatest one of all, CHANGING THE POWDER IN THE 5.56 ROUND. Wonder how many soldiers and Marines died trying to clear one of those early M16's because of Mcnamara's stupidity? The man was useless, and the administrations he served were even more so.

I am not against the sentiments of the post or the comments, however I believe you did him a disservice by not referring to him by the name he chose to go by, Robert S. McNamara. While I think his Middle Name of Strange is rather ironic given his sense that wars could be won by metrics and that the art of war and the cumulative experience of General Officers meant nothing in reaching decisions. Everything could be reduced to a mathematical formula. Of course he shares this and general appearance with Donald Rumsfeld.

sir:

you had me remorseful there for a second, then i remembered that i was trying to do him a disservice. :-) i too noticed a topical resemblence with mr rumsfeld. i think the difference there is that mr rumsfeld, whatever his other faults, always seemed to be eager and willing (and able) to come to grips with the enemy personally. i don't think anyone would have accused r.s. mcnamara of that.

sf

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It was a very nice idea! Just wanna say thank you for the information you have shared. Just continue writing this kind of post. I will be your loyal reader. Thanks again.