Chairman decides to finally ditch 'metrics'.

While at the helm of the Defense Department, Donald Rumsfeld obsessed about hat "metrics" should be applied to measure progress in Iraq. The military leadership at the Pentagon also tried to come up with various methods for gauging success. After all, the U.S. military historically has favored the scientific approaches and measurable aspects of war. But as the situation in Iraq deteriorates, enough with the metrics, said Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "It isn't about X number today, Y number tomorrow," he told reporters. The enemy renders all that meaningless, he said. "He will take a look at what you're measuring and try to defeat that measurement, so to speak."

By Sandra I. Erwin | Email your comments to [e-mail]