There have been contrasting views on our Opinion pages this week about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Former Kansas congressman Bill Roy argued Sunday that Rumsfeld has been "a total disaster." Roy’s reasons are mostly related to the war in Iraq, and he quoted from Thomas E. Ricks’ book "Fiasco" how "Rumsfeld began the war without enough troops and with no idea what would happen after Baghdad and Saddam fell." On the other side, Cal Thomas had a column Wednesday saying Rumsfeld is right about the war on terrorism. Anything less than winning this war, Thomas said, "will mean defeat for the United States and for freedom everywhere."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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26 Comments
I could lunch into a lengthy dissertation of all the reasoning behind my opinion on this matter.But after all would be said and done, the question could be answered with one word.
YES
I could lunch into a lengthy dissertation of all the reasoning behind my opinion on this matter.But after all would be said and done, the question could be answered with one word.
YES
Propaganda is the polite word for lying. And Rumsfeld is a master of propaganda.
You’ve only to look at the United States, in concert with Israel, butchering Arabs by counting the millions of tons of bombs being dropped on them to know that he’s lying.
As far as Arabs using the American Media, well that is downright laughable. Only a small portion of the carnage Rumsfeld causes in reported. And we’ve caught him using Arab TV for false reporting.
Rumsfeld’s misnomer of “terrorism” is nothing more than Arabs feebly trying to fight back.
Rumsfeld and Cheney put together the PNAC plan without factoring in the consequences and Cal Thomas is parroting the fantasy of PNAC, nothing more, nothing less.
Without the Zionist-Jews in the Middle East, none of this fiasco would be happening and the price gasoline would not be breaking the backs of America’s working class.
Rumsfeld is a slick liar. But the price-tag for that is wrecking our country.
The absurdity of the killing fields of Iraq and now Lebanon hurt America. Rumsfeld and his Zionist buddies don’t care.
Cal is an idiot evidently.You cannot police the whole world.The more we try, the more the whole world hates us.Then by our idiot in cheif’s definition, since they hate us they are terrorists.WWIII my ass, if we don’t purge these twits, and the entire status quo for that matter, it’s going to be the whole world against the USA.
Sound like a scenario you want to put your kids and grandkids through?
Other countries do a better job of fighting terrorists without ever invading anybody for anything.Going to Afgan was the right thing to do, but our premature departure from there has negated most of the good work that was initially done.
Had enough yet?
Of course I could be totally wrong.I better go check with Rush and Billo.
Well, good morning Ed.Good to see you’re still with us.
Well, Good morning to you Tracy. Hope all is well.
Glad you’re bloggin at me again.I don’t get into it with you anymore because I’ve come to the conclusion that you really are not racist. I read some of your stuff so I could understand the issue you concern yourself with.Although I may not join in championing your cause, I certainly will not stand in your way, especially when it’s civil and factual.(Every time I get pissed about racist shit here the editors have to remove my comments. Right Lou?)
Bill Roy said: ” Only President George W. Bush is more responsible than Rumsfeld for the tragedy of Iraq. And Bush does not remove Rumsfeld because he does not admit error.”
George W. Bush does not run this country. Cheney and Rumsfeld are in charge of “Staying the PNAC Course.” Bush and Rice are the bobble-heads who repeat whatever they’re told. They do not make policy.
I think the problem is that at a family birthday gathering, GW said to his dad, “I want to be president,” and GHW interjected, “That’s the spirit son,” and went to work to make it happen. But he didn’t let his son finish his thought. What GW was going to say, had dad not interrupted him, was, “I want to be president of the American League.” ;-)
Unfortunately, we are stuck with Rumsfeld and Cheney because George W. has proved that he will not and will never get rid of them. I’m not for cut and run from Iraq but I’m not for stay the course either. If we are to win the war against terror – then let’s use our brains. But to do that, we will need to find some brains in power – that will be a challenge!
There’s no such thing as “terror.’ And as long as you think in that term, you’ve got a twisted outlook.
The “war on terror” is a farce, and excuse to kill Arabs for resisting aggression.
Nope! He’s an excellent DOD Secretary.
We sent nearly half a million troops into Iraq in Operation Desert Storm (1991).
We now have 136,000 troops to try to occupy the entire country of Iraq for years on end.
Q–What’s wrong with this picture?
A–Scroll to the top of the blog for the answer.
It should be the rule that the president that endorses the war should send his own kids to fight the war. And, then all the politicians that follow that president should do the same with their kids. I wonder how long it would take good ole George W. to find a way to exit Iraq?
Ed,
I have a question for you:
What is a zionist?
Fedup,
Last time I checked it was still an volunteer military.
Those who join have a choice to do so.
Do you not want politicians kids to have the same choices we all do?
Nathan,Do you want us to have the same powers to declare war or commit troops as the politicans?
Rumsfeld is kept because he functions as an insurance policy for GW Bush. If it becomes too hot for whatever reason and Bush needs a diversion, Rummy will be thrown under the train in a heartbeat. Cashing in this policy hasn’t been needed, yet…
NO.
He perfectly personifies BushDaBum’s policies.
“Winning this war” and “winning this war using half the number of troops the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend,” are too different things. Suppose that FDR had forced the military to limit itself to 1 million soldiers. We would have lost.
We had the Shock and Awe show. Had that cowed the Iraqis into submission, it would have been great. But it didn’t. Why did the administration THINK that it WOULD work? Blow the country’s infrastructure up, then send in a small occupying force. Why not try it?
It was basically an experiment. It failed. “Mission Accomplished” wasn’t a formal surrender and agreement to peace and reconstruction plans, it was Saddam’s army running away, hiding, and planning guerilla actions. Bush’s landing on the aircraft carrier for a nationally televised video op was theater. A farce, to be sure.
So, if the experiment failed, the options are to withdraw, or go full force, like sending a million troops in and trying again. The administration is doing neither. At this point, the latter is not going to sell easily to the American public. For one thing, it would require a draft. So the administration is stuck in a no-win position. Unfortunately, they refuse to admit the undeniable. Fortunately, 60% of the American people have clear vision on the issue. They realize that the only original “necessity” for invasion, WMD’s, was false. They perceive that the shift to “establishing democracy” as a putative reasonable cause, is a bait-and-switch, and for that matter, it holds little or no likelihood of actualization.
So, the sensible thing to do is to withdraw. You can’t win them all. It’s not “cut and run”. It is quite straightforward: the architects of this war (actually, it isn’t legally a war, as the President didn’t want to trigger international-treaty provisions), devised a scheme to conquer Iraq that failed, and nobody else should be required to rectify their mistakes in order to ameliorate their embarrassment. History is not kind to all leaders.
Nathan
My point was that if these politicans who are so gung ho for this war knew that their kid(s)would be the first one to go – THEN these politicians might actually think about what they were doing and not go in like a bull in a china shop with no exit strategy.
Good points heartlander. The V-1 and V-2 rockets were a sort of “shock and awe”; did they succeed in terrorizing the British into submission?
Is Israel’s shock and awe demonstration cowing Hezbollah?
I heard recently that over half of Saudi Arabians are age 15 or younger. All the Muslim countries have young populations. This is extremely problematic for American domination schemes. Ultimately, wars can only be won with face-to-face combat. If we sent all of our 18-25 year olds to the Middle East, they’d be greatly outnumbered by their 12-25 year olds. Our men and women would be trying to fight for some hazy-to-them reason, while the opposition would be fighting to defend its land, people and culture. Conviction is no trivial thing.
The British couldn’t hold India, despite a similar degree of weapons technology disparity, France couldn’t hold Algeria, France couldn’t hold Vietnam, the U.S. couldn’t hold Vietnam, the Soviets couldn’t hold Afghanistan.
I hope that Bush’s “exit strategy” isn’t Armageddon and the Rapture. If we can withdraw, and learn a lesson, including developing alternative energy resources to end our reliance on oil lying under the feet of people who don’t share our goals and values, it will be a good development for our nation.
We have enough smart people to figure out how to keep America going strong without undertaking futile overseas military adventures. We have much larger environmental problems, including global warming, water depletion and biosphere degradation that warrant expenditures to solve that are currently being recklessly wasted in war.
There you go heartlander, making good common sense again. When are you ever going to learn?
But if the US really developed alternative fuels and we did not need the foreign oil – then what would all those greedy oil companies do? Hopefully they will all take the way of Ken Lay.
Rummsfield is not going anywhere folks.
Rummy,Cheney, and Bush are age-old pals. These are possibly Ws closest friends.