In his first months in office, Rumsfeld's primary goal is to reassert civilian control over a Pentagon that had been dominated by the uniformed military during the Clinton years. He announces a top-down review of Pentagon policy and seizes the military promotion process, personally interviewing three- and four-star candidates.

Convinced that they are blocking innovation, Rumsfeld targets the permanent Pentagon bureaucracy, and in particular Gen. Shinseki and the Army, which he believes is lumbering and intransigent. Some uniformed military complain about their treatment by Rumsfeld, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Hugh Shelton, who tells Washington Post reporter Dana Priest that he is being treated "like a second-rate citizen."