: RUMSFELD'S LEADERSHIP; New Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has made his policy, goals, and leadership style clear:

The top three priorities are:

@ Create the military of the 21st Century by exploiting the technology revolution

@ Develop the capability to defend the country from missiles, terrorism, space threats, and cyber warfare attacks

@ Rebuild the trust between the military and White House.

Rumsfeld has outlawed the elaborate briefings that have become the norm in the Pentagon during the Clinton years. New orders for briefings include:

@ Maximum of one hour, including the time set aside for his questions

@ The principle briefing officer and one or two assistants, not ten or twelve.

@ Get straight to the issues by the shortest possible path.

@ Provide read-ahead material 24-48 hours in advance, limited to one page in bullet points.

@ If the briefing doesn't follow the rules, Rumsfeld will take over and control the presentation. 

The four major defense problems are identified by Rumsfeld as:

@ Inadequate funding

@ Unreliable funding

@ funding that comes with prohibitions or requirements

@ Resistance to change

The five key objectives set out by Rumsfeld include:

@ Build and sustain deterrence. Devalue the investments in weapons of mass destruction by rogue nations based on a combination of nuclear and conventional defensive capabilities.

@ Assure readiness and sustainability of US military forces. Reduce unnecessary risk to US forces. Improve morale by avoiding back-to-back deployments, improving pay, buy enough spare parts, and improve readiness.

@ Modernize command-control-communications-intelligence as this will be fundamental to the new 21st century military. Intelligence and space systems are key and must be stronger and better protected.

@ Take advantage of US technological superiority by introducing new weapons.

@ Reform the Pentagon to cut costs and reduce bureaucratic burdens.--Stephen V Cole