Dear FRONTLINE,

The show left me with the impression that the executive branch of our government has been hijacked by neocon appointees. Bush does not appear to be the commander in chief, especially when Bush goes on vacation and leaves Rumsfeld to slug it out with his opposition.

The other think that worried me is how thinly stretched our military is. I have a daughter and son that are draft age and this confirms my suspicions that a draft maybe here sooner than all of us or the politicians are willing to admit. 33 combat battalions and 20 are currently deployed in Iraq. Who are they fooling?

Conrad Nenn

Dear FRONTLINE,

I was just amazed by this show, why are these wonderful shows never advertisied.

I have spread the word and hope that more people will go to this site, but I would rather they see it for themselves, this could be a major factor in the decisions of many voters! I have truly learned a great deal and feel better about my personal feelings concerning this administration. i wish that more people will tune to PBS for the inside scoop!

Linda Leach
Readington, NJ

Dear FRONTLINE,

I was a planner during the build up to the OIF war. Time and again we planned and planned for 400,000 to 500,000 troops with at least 200,000 ground combat troops (not support). Time and again during planning Mr. Rumsfelds office shot the professional, experienced planners down for political reasons. Militarily, we needed that and now the lives of Americans are being lost every day there because Mr Rumsfelds people faught tooth and nail to have it there way, even though hundreds were trying to tell them it was the wrong way.

Mr Rumsfelds office is guilty of almost murder at this point in my estimation due to there total disregard of experience military planners, Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine planner all told his office the same thing. We got shot down by Mr Rumsfeld and now we are getting shot at and shot up because of HIS actions and decisions. He wanted responsibility for his decisions, now it is time for him to face justice for his mistakes.

J D

Dear FRONTLINE,

I think that this program is a great reminder that our country is not run by some superhuman force that has the uncanny ability to always be right. In fact it is run by people who have the ability to be wrong as well, and often they are. It reminds us that we are not so different from these people and brings a tangible, human connection to the process that takes place when moments in history occur such as this that define who we are as a people not only in our eyes but the rest of the world's eye's.

The separation of civillian and military leaders in this piece is fascinating and should serve as a reminder to follow your heart and be an individual even in the face of adversity. I think Powell must wake up in the middle of the night some nights and regret that he did not stay his course.So is the case with Tommy Franks and others who caved in to the pressures from Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.It's sad to think that of all of the credible experienced people who warned of the problems we may encounter in post-war Iraq, they were simply pushed aside to make way for a few peoples personal agendas. We put young men and women's lives in danger when we go to war and it seems to me this simple fact was not fully considered by our leaders while making this hasty decision.

Kazan Spratt
Philadelphia, pa

Dear FRONTLINE,

I regret that I did not record this program. No matter who wins the election in a week, this program will be an historical marker on the events and planning of the Iraq War. It was insightful, frighteningly revealing, of the heartbreaking mistakes and conspiracy and degradation of wisdom in the highest seats of power. It made me appreciate that there is wisdom and statesmanship in the military leadership of many of the generals and service people who understand the traditional history of this constitutional nation. But when there is a closed mindset of a small group of people, such as has been the case of the Bush Administration, our balanced form of government is in as much danger as any dictatorship.

You titled this as Rumsfeld's War. I disagree. It is Bush's War. He is the Commander-in-Chief. He led the charge. He convinced the Congress and the people to lead us into this quagmire. I believe that Rumsfeld should be held accountable, of course, but so should Cheney, and Wolfowitz, Condoleeza Rice, and even Colin Powell, sad as it seems. But George W. Bush is the President.

Maria Davidson
Norfolk, VA

Dear FRONTLINE,

An intriquing piece but you missed several relevant points. First the Pentagons intragence to deal with heavy weapon systems such as the Crusader and the Commanche. Rumsfeld has eliminated these systems that have no place in the force structure that is needed to face Americas enemies. It took a Donald Rumsfeld to do it.

Second your portrayal of the prisoner abuse scandle, and it is a scandle presumes that though Rumsfeld is ultimately in charge, he has perfect or near perfect knowledge of the actions of his subordinates, many times removed from his personnel supervision.

It is not surprising I suppose that a piece like this has been developed in Mass. It some how does not seem fair, and frankly and perhaps here I held false expectations, for a public television program to present something so biased and one sided. I am considering ending my support of public television because of your program.

In closing, I am associated with part of the amries training program to plan for the problems that are faced in this new type of war. While Rumsfeld has made some mistakes as we all do, it appears to me that he is trying to modify the mind set of the war fighter to meet the challenges that we face.

A last point, you focused solely on the Army in the war in Iraq. You did not mention the Marine Corps, the porblems that they had and potential personalities there.

steve Vernon
Tonganoxie, Kansas

Dear FRONTLINE,

I think Rumsfeld's approach made a lot of sense in many ways. Most limited conflicts probably would be better managed by a very light, quick, highly networked force. The critical problem was that Rumsfeld became aligned with the Neo-conservative fanatics, who managed to apply a pretty innovative military concept to a poorly researched operation that was based on theory rather than real-world foreign policy. There was no actual threat to the U.S., thus no actual reason to go to war other than a Neo-conservative, bad idea. Rumsfeld's pretty good idea was used to support a really bad idea.

Bush, Cheney, Wolfolwitz, et. al. knew nothing about waging an actual war. I'm a combat Vietnam vet, and I am incredulous that our government learned so little from the Vietnam experience.

John Straub
Adelphi, MD

Dear FRONTLINE,

The lessons of Vietnam so painfully learned have been ignored and are now being relearned at the expense of our troops, our economy, our world standing and the Iraqi people just as happened in the 1960s and 1970s in southeast Asia.

I am amazed that these civilians in the Dept of Defense, most of whom have never worn a uniform, fancy themselves so capable as to push aside the trained, educated, volunteer uniformed personnel and conduct action for which they have no real experience. Iraq has become another Vietnam-type fiasco and yes, a quagmire, with the same mix of ingredients - not enough troops, hostiles who cannot be identified, civilian casualties and an erosion of the good will of the Iraqis who thought they were going to be free - they will never be free from conflict and horror - and the USA has done it to them. Are they better off? I wonder.

Are we victorious? Not on your life. What have Rumsfeld and his fellow neo-cons done? Are we safer? Please, I have to stop laughing....... I'd like to see Colin Powell, who has sacrificed his good name in this debacle, resign on Nov 3 - no matter the results of the election - and be free to state his opinions.

Jean Quinlan

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am one of those Reservists that has been on active duty nearly two years. All of this hits close to home for me. I know first hand how many troops have been deployed to Iraq because I have the priveledge of trying to collect blood from them. We are having an extremely hard time collecting blood from the troops right now because of the high volume and frequency of overseas deployments which result in lengthy deferrals.

I think Rumsfeld seriously underestimated this conflict, his paradigm of transforming the Army is not appropriate for every type of conflict. It was highly effective for gaining ground in a place like Iraq, but not for occupation and transformation. I think Gen Shinseki was treated unfairly by him and Congress for telling the truth. I think our elected politicians need to take a harder line holding our executive branch's appointed officials accountable for their actions. I don't believe the actions taken by lower ranking troops can be deemed random, isolated and completely misrepresentative of the culture of the war they intended to set when there were so many cases. As an E04 I gave a class on this (Geneva convention & Army Code of Conduct) during our SGT's time because I at least wanted my coworkers to know what it might look like to be given an unlawful order in a combat environment. I feel sorry for any lower enlisted soldier who didn't know better because they didn't read their handbook a little better.

I think the senior leadership of the Army needs to take some responsibility for not emphasising this kind of training enough or for excluding the legal branch of the military from the process of detaining prisoners of war.

Thank you for this investigative report and for the opportunity to chime in. Sorry I am not very brief.

Brian Hill

Dear FRONTLINE,

It seems that "Rumsfeld's War" could only have been slightly more biased if you had hired Dan Rather to present it. There was no presentation of Rumsfeld's position as Secretary of Defense or the difficulties associated with the office, peacetime or wartime. Rumsfeld inherited the military that the Clinton administration left him. Disrupted, demoralized and dispersed throughout the globe. The funds for the military were slashed by the Democrats during Mr. Clinton's reign and when 9-11 hit the new administration had to fight with what it had. Rumsfeld had information that a smaller, more technologically advanced military would be able to handle the necessary operations and to date it seems to have been doing just that. Try to address the war against the terrorist criminals without saying "Abu Graib" every other word.

Edward Enslinger
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Dear FRONTLINE,

Rumsfeld's War was a timely exhumation of what the critics of the Whitehouse have been saying all along. Too bad it was played so late in the campain for it to have any effect.

Still, it is journalism like Frontline's that gives me hope that someday truth may prevail over ignorance.

James Whalen
Eastham, MA

Dear FRONTLINE,

Rumsfeld's War, still yet another example of left wing propaganda. PBS is so incredibly biased against Republicans, and all things Republican, that you are merely the broadcast arm of the Democratic Party.

Daniel Clements
Gwynn Oak, Md

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am amazed at the arrogance of Donald Rumsfeld that would toss aside the invaluable experience of faithful professional military personnel and needlessly risk the lives of our patriots on the ground.

Perhaps still worse is then not admitting his mistakes and those of his close advisors. We must move beyond this type of decision making.

Jay DuVarney
Mclean, Virginia