The Worst Secretary
of Defense In U.S. History? You Be the Judge
MIKE
WHITNEY | September 5 2006
“As you know, you go to war
with the army you have. They’re not the army you might want or
wish to have at a later time.” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
Name one part of the occupation of Iraq that has
succeeded?
From the shortage of soldiers, to de-Ba’athification, to the disbanding
the Iraqi military, to the lack of body-armor, to leaving the ammo-dumps
unprotected, to Falluja, to Abu Ghraib, to Haditha, to the stage-managed,
public relations Jessica Lynch gambit ( later exposed as a sham) every
facet of Iraqi fiasco has been a complete and utter failure.
And whose name is on that failure? Whose name features most prominently
on the greatest strategic disaster in American history?
Don Rumsfeld.
Major General Paul Eaton summarized Rumsfeld’s dismal performance
this way:
“Rumsfeld has shown himself incompetent strategically, operationally
and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible for what
has happened to our important mission in Iraq”.
Keep in mind that Eaton is a conservative Republican and a firm believer
in America’s preemptive war in Iraq. His comments simply reflect
his ability to judge performance and to assign blame where blame belongs.
In this case, the person who is most responsible for the bungled policy
in Iraq is Don Rumsfeld.
Fellow Lt. General Gregory Newbold was equally critical of Rumsfeld
and said, “The decision to invade Iraq was done with a casualness
and a swagger that are the special province of those who have never
had to execute these missions---or bury the results.”
Newbold is right; they don’t “bury the results” at
the American Enterprise Institute, or at the Pentagon, or at the sanctuaries
of the elites where men like Rumsfeld lark about, but in small-town
America; Bakersfield, Winooski, Devils Lake, where parents and young
widows choke back the tears for the men who lost their lives in Rumsfeld’s
folly. That’s who pays the bill for Rumsfeld’s arrogance.
Rumsfeld’s failures are legion, but they
do not compare to the disgrace he has heaped on the United States through
his authorization of the cruel and inhuman treatment of prisoners in
American custody. There is a clear record of official memoranda which
lead straight to the office of the Secretary of Defense connecting Rumsfeld
to a regime of torture and abuse directed at men who have never been
charged with a crime and who are the unwitting victims of a terrorist
witch-hunt.
Rumsfeld’s involvement in these crimes puts him well-outside our
fundamental traditions and beliefs as Americans. His conduct is an assault
of the basic principles which many Americans hold most dear and which
are written into our founding documents.
“We hold these truths to be self evident…”
Rumsfeld, whose litany of failures in Iraq and
Afghanistan follows him like the stink from a skunk, decided to take
aim at his many critics in a speech delivered to the American Legion
on Thursday.
“Once again, we face similar challenges in efforts to confront
the rising threat of a new type of fascism,” Rumsfeld opined.
“But some seem not to have learned history’s lessons. Can
we truly afford to believe that, somehow or someway, vicious extremists
could be appeased?”
Rumsfeld’s words are aimed at the 61 per
cent of Americans who no longer believe that the war in Iraq is “worth
it”. He dismisses them as “appeasers”. Of course,
at one time many of these people supported the war and didn’t
care about the moral or legal implications as long as America won. What
ultimately changed their minds was the staggering incompetence of the
civilian leadership. The Sec-Def must examine his own performance to
truly understand why public support has eroded so dramatically.
Rumsfeld claims that his critics are “appeasers”
or “fascist” sympathizers, but that's just a silly attempt
to set up a straw man and then knock him down. He is a master at shifting
attention from his own wretched performance and then blaming it someone
else. In this case, he zeros in on everyone who has lost faith in America's
ability to win the war as well as his old nemesis “the media”.
The media has played a central role in sustaining support for the war;
keeping anti-war critics out of their studios and off the air. They’ve
limited their Iraq coverage to scenes of Arabs killing Arabs rather
that the daily digest of American bombing-raids, decimated Iraqi cities
and the ruination of an entire country. Still, in Rumsfeld’s mind,
any information that leaches through the fissures in the media façade
and doesn’t promote the goal of American corporate-hegemony, is
tantamount to treason.
“Those who know the truth need to speak out against these kinds
of (media) myths and distortions that are being told about our country
and our troops,” Rumsfeld moaned. “The struggle we are in
is too important to have the luxury of returning to that old mentality
of “Blame America First.”’
Rumsfeld’s words were immediately followed
by an announcement from the Pentagon that they would tender a “$20
million public relations contract that calls for extensive monitoring
of US and Middle Eastern media in an effort to promote more positive
coverage from Iraq.” (Wasington Post)
This shows us how utterly disconnected from reality
Rumsfeld truly is. Rather than try to grasp the real issues and make
the necessary policy changes, he attacks the messenger and sets up another
agency for silencing dissent. He doesn't even see the war as a problem;
its merely a challenge for his “perception management” team
at the Pentagon. These are the signs of someone who is incapable of
personal reflection or accountability and who seriously believes that
everyone else is to blame for his own failures.
No one is “manipulating the media” to oppose the war, quite
the contrary. The corporate media have been vital cogs in the Pentagon’s
information stratagem and is probably the most successful part of the
war effort. The war itself has yet to produce any moral justification
or any recognizable “metric” for claiming, let alone actually
achieving victory. It simply drags on day by day grinding out more carnage
while reducing the “cradle of civilization” into a pile
of smoldering wreckage.
The Pentagon’s own report provided the most
scathing account of America’s failed crusade. The report admitted
that, “Sectarian violence is spreading in Iraq and the security
problems have become more complex than anytime since the invasion in
2003…The illegal militias have become more entrenched, especially
in Baghdad neighborhoods where they are seen as providers of both security
and basic social services.” (NY Times)
In other words, everything has gone from bad to
worse and there are no tangible signs of improvement.
Is the Pentagon part of the “Blame America
First” crowd too? Is the Big Brass trying to “manipulate
the media and demoralize public opinion” as Rumsfeld claims?
Opposition to the war is now emerging from all sectors of society and
it continues to grow despite the optimistic accounts in the media. America
was defeated in Iraq when the first bomb was dropped on Baghdad in March
2003. It's been downhill ever since. After 4 years of the most pitiless
warfare against a civilian population, the magnitude of that defeat
has only increased.
Rumsfeld is mistaken when he says that antiwar Americans suffer from
“moral confusion.” Moral confusion is a condition of men
who deliberately inflict pain on other human beings in violation of
the most fundamental standards of human decency. In fact, those activities
far exceed mere confusion; they indicate a state of total moral decay.
Such people are not fit to make even the most elementary ethical judgments,
let alone to decide on the important issues of war and peace.
Support for the war is on a steady downward trajectory. That won't change
because of the delusional accusations of a man who, more than any other,
is responsible for the shame and degradation the conflict has brought
on our country.
That man is Don Rumsfeld.
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Prison
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