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OCTOBER 22,
2003 - We all have seen the PR campaign the President and his
administration have been running, trying to put a positive spin on
the events in Iraq. Just when people were actually starting to
buy the spin, they made the mistake of saying something honest, and
it has made its way to the press.
Yes, an Oct. 16,
2003 memo from Mr. Rumsfeld has come into the public eye, and it
shows beneath the stern talk and positive spin, he seems to agree
with many of the reporters he and the Bush administration have been
chiding so adamantly.
"The United
States has no yardstick for measuring progress in the war on
terrorism, has not "yet made truly bold moves" in fighting al-Qaeda
and other terror groups, and is in for a "long, hard slog" in Iraq
and Afghanistan, according to a memo that Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld sent to top-ranking Defense officials last week," reported
by USA Today.
Remember how
angry and mean Rumsfeld was when people asked if Iraq wasn't a
quagmire? Oooo, was he furious. Publicly, that is. What does
Rumsfeld really think in private?
In response to
his own question, "Are we winning or losing the Global War on
Terror?" Rumsfeld can only say that it seems the more we do, the
worse things get.
"Is our current
situation such that 'the harder we work, the behinder we get'?"
wrote Rumsfeld, according to USA Today.
What about the
clear and decisive victories we have had? Well, not only
doesn't he, when speaking honestly in private, think we have had
victories yet, he is unsure if we will have clear victories of the
sort he claims in public, saying only that we can win, "in one way
or another, but it will be a long, hard slog."
What about
strong denouncements of press reports that the war was not well
planned - we all saw you, Mr. Rumsfeld, the President, and the rest
of the administration hitting the airwaves to say that in fact there
had been a plan and it was being carried out well. But what do
you really think?
"The US is
putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan," wrote
Rumsfeld in the memo. What a massive statement. They have
launched us headlong into a war with no long term plan. That
is so pathetic is should be criminal.
Yes, it seems
Rumsfeld agrees with we who have bashing him and the Bush
administration's Iraq policy all along. The fact that he has
been out attacking anyone who has asserted that while he actually
believes it himself makes him not just someone who fights a war
without a long-term plan, but a liar as well.
Rummy is finally
realizing short term "shoot'em all" doesn't win wars. It is
nice bravado, FOX News can really around it, but having a long term
plan is what wins wars.
Beginning to get
the point, Rumsfeld sounds a truly alarming note: "The
cost-benefit ratio is against us! Out cost is billions against
the terrorists' cost of millions." Yeah, Rummy, having gone it
alone in Iraq has put us in a very weak position economically.
We're glad you, at last, have noticed - we, and millions of others
around the country and the world, saw it would be like this before
it ever happened.
Even as Rumsfeld
says this now, it doesn't fully seem he grasps the real threat this
is - al-Qaeda had no problem waiting almost a decade to go back
after the World Trade Center after its first, failed attempt.
As we throw hundreds of billions at Iraq, will we, economically,
have enough staying power to fight through this, "long, hard slog,"
or will we have blown our load in the first couple of minutes?
I know the old, hateful Rumsfelds are now excited that Viagra exists
to help them with these problems in their private lives, but this
won't fix the disasters they create for the nation through their
public actions.
All along, the
Bush administration was warned that attacking Iraq would create more
new enemies than it would eliminate. The Bushies disagreed,
rudely and loudly, as always.
Well, Rumsfeld
now says, "Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading
more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics
are recruiting, training and deploying against us?" Try to
restrain your anger at the Bush administration stupidity for only
considering this now and not before launching their multi-hundred
billion dollar pre-emptive,
anti-American-sentiment-inspiring-quagmire-in-Iraq planless plan.
I know, it is pretty hard to do.
Even harder when
you realize they are still going around pretending they do not think
what they actually think - and even worse, they attack anyone who
thinks or says what they, in reality, think when they are not out on
some PR tour.
And for the
bold, decisive manner in which the Bush administration portrays it
is fighting the War On Terror: "My impression is that we have
not yet made truly bold moves," says Rumsfeld in the memo.
As we at The
Moderate Independent have often pointed out, the tool that hold the
Bush administration together is a game of "blame and lie." The
launch a lie-to-the-nation PR tour to make it seem like Iraq and the
War On Terror are going so, so well, assail the press for reporting
things otherwise, attack anyone who asserted the war in Iraq would
create more enemies than friends and unduly cost us financially if
we go alone. Even they don't buy their own crap - it is just a
game to intimidate and bully.
Bravo to USA
Today for breaking this one.
Poor Rummy.
That's what happens when you are coming down off that Viagra high I
guess. |
