Rumsfeld at the CFR: “Some humility is in order.”
Of course, all he means by that is that it’s hard to Karen Hughes people into believing you’re trying to help them while you’re setting them on fire.
Also: “I do not believe we have reached the end of history.”
Of course, all he means by that is that there are wonderful new weapons systems out there to purchase that haven’t even been invented yet.
I must say, it’s an interesting thing to watch Rumsfeld spin at the Council on Foreign Relations – he’s quite pathetic really. After all, Rumsfeld is one of the leaders of the Military Industrial Complex/neoconservative cabal which seized the state’s foreign policy apperatus away from the Pratt House types after 9/11, and his Iraq project has turned out to be the “greatest strategic disaster in United States history.”
The speech, “New Realities in the Media Age,” is on the danger of the freedom of information exchange made possible by satellite TV and the internet. It’s hard to get away with creating enemies and destroying them when everyone who feels like it can blog your every fascist move. The fact that the Secretary of Defense worries about the internet worries me.
“The press talks about my Copper Green torture program too much! Traitors! Didn’t I tell you, it’s all the fault of the night shift?!”
The question and answer section is the most fun. He resorts to the stupid Caliphate myth when asked whether he’s ever gotten around to figuring out his metrics, claims that the fact Don Imus is having to raise money for wounded soldiers is no indication that the state is letting them down and that Iran is a credible threat.
When Andrea Mitchell asked about the UN’s call for the close of the Guantanamo bay torture camp, Skeletor responded angrily:
“It’s absolutely … er, uh… beyond comprehension that simply because some of these people that have habeus corpus rights (over the executive’s objection – editor) they’ve hired lawyers and are telling lawyers exactly what to tell people, say exactly what they were trained to in the Manchester document, ‘tell em it’s torture, tell em this, tell em that,’ that’s what they do. … If someone has a better idea, I’d like to hear it.”
To see Rumsfeld pull the patriotism canard out at the CFR shows some real desperation: “Why, It’s a terrible thing for people to say bad things about the government! This is a great country we have.” You don’t disagree with that do you?
He also says that the terrorists in Iraq (Sunni insurgency) “hate democracy.” Perhaps this is because they are the minority?
Or maybe the neocon’s plan has worked and the Iraqis have been reading James Madison!
