Rumsfeld Declared `War against the Bureaucraticism`

Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Defense Minister, declared a war yesterday against the inefficient bureaucratic system not against the outside enemy.

Minister Rumsfeld revealed his plan in the address to the department officials, ``to strengthen and modernize the military power with the limited budget, we need to go for the merger and abolition of the overlapped works in the department and need to transfer to the private sections.``

He also mentioned that the enemy of the U.S. is not Russia or the autocratic states that have been declining rather ``the enemy is so much close to us, that is, the bureaucraticism in the Defense department.``

The Minister blamed that ``the money is leaking by the duplicated jobs and the bureaucratic system. We are operating military substructures 20-25 percent more than it is necessary, eventually wasting more than 3 billion dollars every year.``

Minister Rumsfeld pointed out that ``the development of a new weapon system works so slow then when the weapon is really deployed at the spot, the technology has become out of date at least a generation.`` He also remarked that the department will reduce the 15 percent of human resources in the military department and the foreign bases by 2003, saying that ``by saving 5 percent of the unnecessary waste of the military budget, about 15-18 billion dollars will be used for the military buildup.``

He also emphasized that ``some may complain how come the Defense Minister attack the officials of the Defense Ministry but I believe this is the right way to save the Defense Department.``

Minister Rumsfeld expressed his will to fight for the military reformation and the modernization, stating that ``if there occurs conflicts, I will wage the war.``

The Minister has been known to suffer from the protest of the military leaders against the reduction of unnecessary military bases and military powers. He has focused on the military reformation by the increase of the military mobilization and the development of new weapon system with the help of the civil military experts.

The employees of the U.S. Defense number 1.4 million soldiers in active service, 1 million of the National Guard and National Reserve, and 659 thousands civilians.

Han Ki-Heung eligius@donga.com