The latest Secretary Rumsfeld poetry: five new poems

Every couple of months, I sift through a few of Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's press "opportunities," press conferences, and speeches. A few poems usually emerge. In our continuing series, here are some poems spoken by the Secretary in February, 2006, at two venues: an interview with Charlie Rose, and remarks he made to National Guard Youth Challenge Participants on February 28.


24 hours a day


The new media environment
Where there are cell phones and blackberries
And e-mails and 24-hour talk radio

24-hour news programs
And the internet and bloggers
And all of these things that move information

Instantaneously all across the globe
24 hours a day,
7 days a week.
---o0o---

The 20th century

The United States government
Is simply not organized

And arranged and structured
To cope with that.

We're still in the 20th century.
---o0o---

A very difficult one

If you're engaged in a major battle
With major armies and navies competing
And air forces competing, that's one thing.

The center of gravity of that war
Is where those battles occur.
Today, we're not competing

With our major armies, navies or air forces.
It's an unconventional conflict.
It is irregular warfare.

It is asymmetric and the battleground
Is not so much out there,
It is here.

The center of gravity is in the capitals of cities
All across nations all across the world
Because it's a totally new environment

And a very difficult one.
---o0o---

Too old to cry

When I was roughly your ages --
That was a long time ago --
There was a Governor from Illinois named Adlai Stevenson.

He ran for President a couple of times
And lost to General Eisenhower
Both times.

He spoke at my graduating class in college.
It was between his two defeats.
Someone asked how he felt about losing.

He said well,
He was too old to cry
And it hurt too much to laugh.
---o0o---

Rewards, and pebbles in the pond

I've often thought of throwing a pebble in a pond
And watching the ripples go out.
And how interesting that is that each person

Touches a series of circles
Of people
That you come in contact with.

If each of you represent the ripples that go out
To the others you touch in your daily life,
You'll find yourself rewarded many many times over.

---o0o---