NEWSMAKER: DONALD RUMSFELD (NewsHour Transcript)

[grytpype]

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discusses the challenge of rebuilding Iraq, pre-war intelligence, and the president's call for more international involvement.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec03/rumsfeld_09-10.html

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Jim Lehrer does a very tough, take-no-bullshit interview of Rummy in this must-read transcript. But for the full effect, listen to the audio. Rummy sounds whiny and desperate throughout, like he knows the act is falling apart around him.

Highlights

On the Cakewalk Scenerio

JIM LEHRER: Rightly or wrongly, Mr. Secretary, I went back and checked the record today, the impression that was given in public statements and all that sort of thing was that when this war ended, this war was going to end, that when Saddam Hussein and his regime, you know, fell, then the rest of it was going to be kind of a mop-up. And I'm just --

DONALD RUMSFELD: Not by me. . . . There were some people who were quite optimistic that there would be a surrender of their army in a formal way. . . . In fact, what happened was they didn't surrender. The intelligence was not perfect on that. They bled into the countryside. We had maybe ten, twelve thousand surrendered out of a much bigger universe.



On WMD

JIM LEHRER: Let's cut to the crunch on this question. If in fact this team does not find any weapons of mass destruction, do you believe that would do serious harm to the credibility of the president and this administration and particularly on the... in the long run and when history looks back on this?

DONALD RUMSFELD: I mean, the intelligence that our country had-- has-- was over a sustained period of time, it was validated by other intelligence services. I have to believe it was reasonably correct -- obviously not perfect. No intelligence is ever perfect. And that as the reports come out, they will find evidence of the kinds of programs that Secretary Powell presented to the United Nations. That's my... yes, I mean that's what I believe.

JIM LEHRER: But if they don't? Is that a problem?

DONALD RUMSFELD: I don't do hypotheticals.


Why we don't need more troops in Iraq

JIM LEHRER: The troops question. Sending more U.S. troops --you've made it very clear on more than one occasion you do not believe more U.S. troops are needed. Do you still feel that way?

DONALD RUMSFELD: Here's the situation. We've got commanders on the ground and they say they don't want more U.S. troops. We've got General Sanchez who is in charge of the country who says he does not want more U.S. troops. More U.S. troops from his standpoint would mean more force protection, more combat support, and he says that he's got about on a daily basis fifteen, twelve, fifteen, eighteen incidents a day. They last two or three minutes.

JIM LEHRER: Incidents meaning --

DONALD RUMSFELD: Combat.

[cliss]

1. Why doesn't he just say what it really is....

attacks? Attacks on US soldiers. Notice how he minimizes them. "Incidents" sounds like someone dropping a banana peel on the sidewalk. And notice the time: "two or three minutes". That's about the time it takes to buy a Pepsi out of a vending machine. That's sure trivializing someone's life which is at stake.

And as far as not wanting more troops: he says that General Sanchez doesn't want troops because there are no more troops. They're still waiting for reinforcements from other countries.

Why let your enemy know you're fresh out?

[caledesi]

2. Did you see Jim Lehrer's face?

The entire time he was interviewing this lying bastard, JL had a "cheshire cat" smile on his face which I read as "you are such a f*cking liar."

[Cocoa]

5. I love when Lehrer said "enough already!"

I forget how he worded it exactly, but Rummy was going into some repetitive meaningless rhetoric and they don't like that on that program. Despite criticism of NewsHour, they don't let themselves be a mouthpiece like the other networks do. Lehrer is not as sexually attracted to Rummy as Tim Russert is.

[fabius]

3. Rummy on rebuilding Iraq

(Just posted this on General Discussion but it dropped like a rock-too much Dean bashing):boring:

Rummy says (paraphrase) One reason we are having so much trouble rebuilding is that NOBODY COULD HAVE GUESSED that the Iraqi infrastructure (water, sewer, power) systems could have been in such bad shape.

NOBODY COULD HAVE GUESSED??!

Hey *I* could have guessed and in fact DID guess. It's been common knowledge that after the 1991 bombing and 12 years of sanctions that Iraqi water, sewer, and power systems were pretty much derelict. Chlorine for water treatment is a "dual use" chemical and was hard for them to get; replacement parts for treatment systems were blocked; many treatment plants never got fully repaired. This is one of the reasons for the high death rate under sanctions that Ms. Albright said was "worth the cost".

(full disclosure, I'm a civil engineer specializing in water infrastructure).

This has just been a well-known fact in the industry for YEARS. Rummy never asked us!

Rummy, Rummy, Rummy, your lies are showing.

[otohara]

4. Nauseating Interview -

Arrogance of Rumsfeld and Jim Lehrer was a huge disappointment. It was as if he was all goo goo. This exchange was weird:

JIM LEHRER: Tomorrow will be the second anniversary of 9/11. An airplane went into the Pentagon, of course, into... two planes went into New York and another one in Pennsylvania. But a plane went into your building not far from where you and I are sitting. You were in the building at the time. Do you still think about that?

DONALD RUMSFELD: Of course. I mean we lost hundreds of people and thousands nationwide.

JIM LEHRER: I mean, do you think about those moments?
MOMENTS - WTF????

DONALD RUMSFELD: Sure, you bet. And I also think about the statement that was made to me shortly thereafter when I was in the Gulf and a senior leader there said to me, Maybe that was a blessing in disguise. Maybe that will wake up the world to the fact that there are people out teaching people to kill innocent men, women and children. They're being taught that as young kids, and if the world doesn't wake up, there will be so many of those people and they will have weapons so powerful that maybe there be will a 9/11 -- a September 11 -- not where 3,000 are killed but 30,000 or 300,000. And that would be a terrible thing, he said. We've got... this has to be a wake-up call for the world.

JIM LEHRER: Was he right? Do you feel that it was a wake- up call?

DONALD RUMSFELD: I think so absolutely, yeah. I mean, 90 countries cooperating right now, right now 90 countries cooperating and putting pressure on terrorist networks; that's probably the biggest coalition in history

[fabius]

6. This was at the end, the BS part.

I thought Lehrer was much tougher than Rummy is accustomed to and he was dodging and weaving like a wide receiver.

Rummy was asking himself questions frantically, you can tell he's nervous when he does that. And that he's lying.

[grytpype]

7. Listen to the audio!

You won't think it was too goo-goo once you hear Rummy's voice. Like his balls were in a vice.

[Tracer]

8. So. Rumsferatu Doesn't Do Hypothetical?

The colossal liar.

The entire Iraq fiasco was ENTIRELY built on hypothetical!

[Ripley]

9. I saw a CNN ticker scroll yesterday that said...

Rumsfeld says Iraq has potential and it could be a tourist destination spot.

Why isn't this man being carted off in a straightjacket?

Now let me go call my travel agent and arrange a spring vacation in sunny, relaxing Baghdad.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

10. Think about the source....

He probably really likes the ME right now.

Anyone heard about a surge of Americans reserving rooms in the Palestine Hotel?


Feel safe.
Ashcroft watches over us all.