The Chaotic Genius Of Donald Rumsfeld

It is one of the irritating defects of genius that, particularly when surrounded by crushing mediocrity, the audacity of having ideas becomes a source of recurring controversy. To have the most ideas means you have the most good ideas, but also the most bad ideas. I have had the great fortune to know and meet more than a handful of figures in my life who truly qualify as men of genius, and one of them was certainly Donald Rumsfeld, who passed away yesterday at the ripe age of 88. 

Don Rumsfeld led a life of great achievement, controversy, and purpose. He was the youngest and the oldest Secretary of Defense. He was mercurial and a genius with language. He loved America, and served her to the best of his abilities. He also provides for us an illustration of the limitations of government and bureaucracy, and how everyone who bucks the system attracts the most critics, some fair, some not.

I have been disappointed that Robert Draper’s book, “To Start A War,” received less attention than it deserved. Its chapter on Rumsfeld is revealing. He dresses down generals, finds acronyms ridiculous, throws papers, flips off lights, seeks out ideas that are “short, precise, and brilliant”, and nukes idiocy from orbit. “It’s really good that you and I met, so that I can improve you,” Draper quotes Rumsfeld as saying. He comes across as the intellectual equivalent of Sergeant Dignam in The Departed: “I’m the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy.”