"I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won't last any longer than that."
Donald Rumsfeld
By Juan Montoya
Neatly sandwiched between the disasters of the Boston Bomber and the Oklahoma Tornado, a ghost from the past did the weekend talk-show circuit hawking a book of his "rules."
Donald Rumsfeld, the failed architect of myriad foibles that resulted in war, death, and the waste of U.S. blood and treasure pushed his new "Rumsfeld Rules" book, a collection of maudlin cornpone sayings he said guided his illustrious career in the halls of power in Washington D.C. and the world.
Your remember Rumsfeld, the was the pint-size career bureaucrat who reappeared n the various Republican administrations starting with Gerald Ford and ending with the disastrous administration of George W. Bush. In between he was a pliant servant of the worst policy mandates of his immediate bosses. He was the hawk's hawk who – immediately after 911 – counseled for the invasion of Iran even though intelligence indicated that the Saddam Hussein regime had nothing to do with 911, and that there was no link between it and Al Queda. The war, he said, would not last more than five months.
Now, the man who said he "didn't do quagmires" has conveniently forgot his folly in leading hapless George W. into a war that saw more than 4,000 U.S. soldiers dead, $1.7 trillion in wasted treasure, and an another estimated $6 trillion to take care of our wounded and maimed over the next 20 years. What have we to show for this blunder under Rumsfeld and the patriots of "W's" Administration who beat on the drums of war?
Remember their call to war?
Remember their call to war?
"The danger is clear: using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other...Terrorists and terror states do not reveal these threats with fair notice, in formal declarations—and responding to such enemies only after they have struck first is not self-defense, it is suicide. The security of the world requires disarming Saddam Hussein now."
America killed tens of thousands (134,000 at last count) of people and turned Iraq into a breeding ground for terrorism. And we spent a trillion dollars ($1.7 trillion) to do it.
Today, we consciously turn off our attention when we hear of the latest bombing atrocity in Baghdad. We no longer consider it our business. But don't for a minute think that just because Saddam was killed we accomplished anything in that forsaken country. We might have even left it worse.
As an envoy from President Reagan, he had a secret meeting with the Iraqi dictator and arranged enormous military assistance for his war with Iran.The CIA had already warned that Iraq was using chemical weapons almost daily. But Rumsfeld, at the time a successful executive in the pharmaceutical industry, still made it possible for Saddam to buy supplies from American firms.
They included viruses such as anthrax and bubonic plague, according to the Washington Post.
The extraordinary details came to light because thousands of State Department documents dealing with the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war were declassified and released under the Freedom of Information Act.
America killed tens of thousands (134,000 at last count) of people and turned Iraq into a breeding ground for terrorism. And we spent a trillion dollars ($1.7 trillion) to do it.
Today, we consciously turn off our attention when we hear of the latest bombing atrocity in Baghdad. We no longer consider it our business. But don't for a minute think that just because Saddam was killed we accomplished anything in that forsaken country. We might have even left it worse.
As an envoy from President Reagan, he had a secret meeting with the Iraqi dictator and arranged enormous military assistance for his war with Iran.The CIA had already warned that Iraq was using chemical weapons almost daily. But Rumsfeld, at the time a successful executive in the pharmaceutical industry, still made it possible for Saddam to buy supplies from American firms.
They included viruses such as anthrax and bubonic plague, according to the Washington Post.
The extraordinary details came to light because thousands of State Department documents dealing with the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war were declassified and released under the Freedom of Information Act.
In the talk shows hawking his book, Rumsfeld bitterly condemns Saddam as a ruthless and brutal monster and frequently backs up his words by citing the use of the very weapons which it now appears he helped to supply.
Rumsfeld career of deceit started when he was first joined the Nixon administration as an assistant to the president (1969-72). He was chief-of-staff under Gerald Ford (1974-5), who also appointed him defense secretary (1975-7). He then became president and chief executive officer for the pharmaceutical firm G D Searle and Co (1977-1985), held posts in various business corporations, and for a time was Ronald Reagan's special ambassador to the Middle East (1983-4). He was appointed defense secretary (2001) by George W Bush, and he was responsible for the US campaign during the Iraq War (2003). Following September 11, 2001, Rumsfeld oversaw the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan that resulted in the overthrow of the Taliban.
Then came the Iraq debacle.
Kevin Phillips, in his book "American Dynasty" (Viking 2004), traces the discontent that drove people like Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolden and other die-hard conservatives – smarting under their past failures – to involve this country in their mad quest for vindication.
Rumsfeld, as Ford's Chief of Staff and Cheney, as his assistant, were on watch when Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese and when they mishandled the rescue of the Mayaguez merchant ship by the Cambodians which resulted in the execution of three U.S. Marines left behind as captives.
"It becomes clear that few regimes have chosen top defense strategy teams whose thinking has been shaped by the experience of old wars and by an anxiousness to wipe away their lingering embarrassments," Phillips writes.
Rumsfeld's new book, which he is feverishly pushing on social media, is but yet another attempt by Rumsfeld to make the people of this country forget that but for him and his ilk, thousands of our countrymen and women would still be alive and our standing in the world would be in much better shape.
Rumsfeld career of deceit started when he was first joined the Nixon administration as an assistant to the president (1969-72). He was chief-of-staff under Gerald Ford (1974-5), who also appointed him defense secretary (1975-7). He then became president and chief executive officer for the pharmaceutical firm G D Searle and Co (1977-1985), held posts in various business corporations, and for a time was Ronald Reagan's special ambassador to the Middle East (1983-4). He was appointed defense secretary (2001) by George W Bush, and he was responsible for the US campaign during the Iraq War (2003). Following September 11, 2001, Rumsfeld oversaw the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan that resulted in the overthrow of the Taliban. Then came the Iraq debacle.
Kevin Phillips, in his book "American Dynasty" (Viking 2004), traces the discontent that drove people like Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolden and other die-hard conservatives – smarting under their past failures – to involve this country in their mad quest for vindication.
Rumsfeld, as Ford's Chief of Staff and Cheney, as his assistant, were on watch when Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese and when they mishandled the rescue of the Mayaguez merchant ship by the Cambodians which resulted in the execution of three U.S. Marines left behind as captives.
"It becomes clear that few regimes have chosen top defense strategy teams whose thinking has been shaped by the experience of old wars and by an anxiousness to wipe away their lingering embarrassments," Phillips writes.
Rumsfeld's new book, which he is feverishly pushing on social media, is but yet another attempt by Rumsfeld to make the people of this country forget that but for him and his ilk, thousands of our countrymen and women would still be alive and our standing in the world would be in much better shape.
2 comments:
I can't tell whether Rumsfeld is laughing WITH Saddam at the American military for trusting him or AT Saddam for not realizing Rumsfeld is a two faced back stabber and he shouldn't be putting that level of trust in him either .
Good essay . Thanks.
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