Inside the Ring

One clue

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld summoned more than a dozen assistant secretaries to his office late last month. Thinking back, the attendees should have seen a clue that his days were numbered.

During a discussion of the state of the Pentagon and four military branches, Mr. Rumsfeld suddenly pulled out a 10-page list of what he thought the Pentagon has accomplished during his nearly six-year term.

There were more than 100 items, the things a legacy is made of.

“I should have known then the guy was leaving,” said a defense source.

Little did anyone know that Mr. Rumsfeld and President Bush had held a series of one-on-one discussions on the deteriorating conditions in Iraq and that a bottom line had been reached: The defense secretary would resign.

Among the accomplishments:

• The global war on terrorism and degrading the al Qaeda network.

• A deployed missile-defense system.

• Empowered special operations, with their budget increased by 107 percent and personnel by 11 percent.

There were not a lot of entries on Iraq, the war that cost Mr. Rumsfeld his job.

Pentagon takeover

Defense conservatives in and out of government are lamenting the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the nomination of former CIA Director Robert M. Gates as a takeover attempt by anti-conservative Republicans.

Specifically, conservatives say Mr. Gates is an agent of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, who are from the “realist” school of national security advocates and who oppose the Bush administration’s aggressive war on terrorism.

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