WP: Rumsfeld: U.S. Won't Lose in Iraq

[deminks]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/29/AR2005082901916.html?nav=rss_world

FORT IRWIN, Calif., Aug. 29 -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld offered a passionate defense of the war in Iraq while speaking to a group of hundreds of soldiers at the Army's National Training Center on Monday afternoon, urging them not to give up on the war against extremism as they prepare to re-enter the fight in coming months.

"We have no choice but to take the offensive," Rumsfeld told a packed auditorium of soldiers and families of those already deployed, arguing that a hasty withdrawal from Iraq is not a viable option. "People who want to toss in the towel were wrong yesterday, they're wrong today, and they'll be wrong tomorrow."

"The United States is not losing the global war against terrorism, nor are we losing the war in Afghanistan or Iraq," he said. Railing against violent extremists, he added, "They are what's wrong with the world."

"Everyone would like it to be perfect, and life isn't perfect," Rumsfeld said.

[graywarrior]

1. Blah blah blah. Shut the fuck up, Rummy.

[saigon68]

36. Railing against violent extremists

HE IS ONE HIMSELF

A Thug, a Murderer and a War Criminal.

[Roland99]

2. Up is down, black is white, wrong is right, death is good

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. ... the war against extremism....

Is that the new name? I'll have to change my keyboard again.

[RobertSeattle]

6. You know, extremism...

Pat Robertson, Ann Coulter, Rush Limabugh, Sean Hannity...

[Autonomy]

4. I'm glad to see he separated Iraq from the 'war on terror'

but he he should have said "WE (violent extremists) are what's wrong with the world."

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. Westmoreland: U. S. Won't Lose in Vietnam.

[BattyDem]

7. Yo Rummy ...

Iraq is about to become an Islamic state. Face it - we already lost!

[grytpype]

8. A criminal and a blunderer.

He'll be remembered as the worst Sec Def ever.

[Joebert]

9. Define "Win"

How do you win?

When we go 3 days without an insurgent attack?

90 days?

When there aren't anymore Iraqis to have children, just in case one grows up to not like people occupying their country?

How do you "win" this?

[defiant1]

54. My point exactly....

You can't win war. It's not possible.

Once the first life has been lost, or the first drop of blood shed, everyone loses.

Violence never solves anything, it just creates more violence.

:patriot:

[Tace]

10. Cracks Me Up The Sec Of Defense Is "Railing Against Violent Extremists"

Looked in the mirror lately Rummy? You Da Man.

[NNN0LHI]

11. Where are the WMDs Rummy? "The WMDs? They are right over there in Tikrit."

Gotcha Rummy.

Don

[ninkasi]

30. North, south, east, and west

of Tikrit, to be exact. Rummy is psycho, and belongs locked away in an asylum someplace, where he can't cause any more damage to humanity. He's like a dog with rabies, completely out of his mind and dangerous.

[Gregorian]

12. Iraq never attacked the United States.

So what was there to win, again?
What would winning be? Stealing their oil?

Winning would have been protecting the archives instead of the Ministry of Oil, after you attacked them unprovoked. That was the dead giveaway that you weren't there for any other reason.

[NNN0LHI]

15. Yea but if we leave they might kill one another

So we will just have to stay there and prevent them from killing one another...by killing them. And some people say we should send tens of thousands of more troops over there so we can kill them even better.

Don

[NRaleighLiberal]

13. Was he asking himself questions? You betcha....

is the man insane? absolutely. Should have lost his job ages ago? etc etc etc - a complete embarrassment!

[Tace]

17. Yes, INSANE

That's about the best description for the entire bushco.

And history will judge them as such.

[Triana]

14. Hurricane Katrina won't hit NO either!

Oh. Wait. It already did, didn't it?

DOH!

Same flawed logic Rummy is using, innit? Puh.

[opiate69]

16. Define "winning" as it pertains to this war, Rumsfailed...

Fuck, I'm sick of these empty phrases they keep spewing.. "we will stay until the mission is done", "We will not lose this war"..etc, etc.. but they never once actually define what the "mission" is, or how "victory" is to be measured...

[paulk]

49. exactly. it's just more empty rhetoric from BushCo

How can they define "losing" when they won't even define "winning"?

[Voltaire99]

18. All over but for the crying.

And that will be bottomless.

This past Veteran's Day walking the dog I came upon a shrine in a neighbor's yard. Candles were burning around a simple glass frame containing the letters and photos home from a loved one buried in Vietnam.

Thirty years. And the candles are still burning.

[geckosfeet]

19. Should he be masturbating at his age? n/t

[wli]

20. Reichsmarschall Rumsfeld attempts to declare fiasco victory n/t

[amber dog democrat]

21. GOTT MIT UNS !

The Russians will be stopped before they get to Berlin and defeated at the last minute... ooops wrong war !

No, the light is at the end of the tunnel .. nope wrong war again,

We are winning the war on terror or is it the global struggle against violent extremeism ? Herr Rumsfeld needs to move out of the bunker and take in the big picture. This is no just cause. We have no exit strategy and no clue on what to do next. I wish him the joy of his war.

[lebkuchen]

22. How many US lives is Rummy willing to lose to "win?"

[MurrayDelph]

58. In the words of Moe Howard:

"We'll stand a fight until the last drop...

of YOUR blood!"

[acmavm]

23. I hope that these guys live in long enough (in a cell after being

convicted for crimes against humanity) to see what history has to say about what they've done.

I read that most of the noted historians (sorry can't provide any names) have said they this administration will be described as being one of (if not THE) worst in the history of this country.

They can't stop the truth from coming out. It may take a while but it will come out. And none of them, not bush** or Poppy or Uncle Dick or Rummy or Condi or Richard or Wolfie or Dougie and the cast of hundreds of other crooked evil bastards, will be able to prevent future generations (that is if they don't get us all killed before then) from knowing what criminal evil incompetent money grubbing lying bastards they are.

Hey, I just thought of something. History will have one rather comical footnote. Mr. Gannon/Guckert. What has happened to that guy? Where did he go? How was he ever allowed to slide back into oblivion so easily?

[WhiteTara]

24. was he lying on the floor kicking and

screaming in a tantrum mode? Send him to the Hague for crimes against humanity. :grr:

[oioioi]

25. Anagrams for "war against extremism"

irritant smegma waxes

eats earwax trimmings

extra mainstream swig

Texas airman gems writ

twit maxims anger ears

rim swatting arse exam

tx mismanager is water

terra axis mating mews

am miring taxes waster

[JawJaw]

26. Extreme?

Now that was extreme...

[Barrett808]

27. As always with these mobsters, assume the opposite of what they say

Therefore, we're going to lose, and in a big way.

[Tyranny_R_US]

28. Of course we won't...

We still have a few million americans to spare

[The_Casual_Observer]

29. If you never leave you never lose.

We are never leaving, so he is right.

[kodi]

31. the dumb shit doesn't even realize we have lost already

it is not simply in iraq that the battle has been waged, but in every capital city in the world. the US has lost its moral high ground and the willing cooperation of nations all over the globe. that is what is necessary to fight world-wide terrorism and now we have lost the best weapon we have, the respect of the world and our integrity as a nation.

Rumsfeld is the most incompetent US official in my lifetime. he makes McNamara look like Clausewitz

[Wizard777]

32. Who cares! La. and Miss. are drowning!

[rodeodance]

33. we have already lost in Iraq--it is the elephant in the room.

[Skidmore]

34. Can we lose Rummie somewhere?

[hadrons]

35. and this, after a story that says U.S. won't given better arms .....

to the Iraqis they are training because the military is scared they'll end up being used against our troops


Big Guns For Iraq? Not So Fast

And that presents a conundrum for American military planners. With those questions up in the air, they have to fear that any heavy arms distributed now could end up aimed at American forces or feeding a growing civil conflict. And the longer Iraq's army has to wait for sophisticated weapons, the longer American forces are likely to be needed in Iraq as a bulwark against chaos.

In public, the commanders cite many reasons for the slow pace of equipping the Iraqis: the supply chain is long, Iraq's soldiers are barely trained and largely untested, and the rebels they face are better fought with rifles than tanks.

In private, some officers acknowledge other concerns, too. "We're worried about civil war or a coup," said a senior American officer in Baghdad charged with outfitting Iraq's new army. He would not agree to be identified because the concerns he was discussing are so sensitive.

....

At the same time, the Americans are building at least four semi-permanent military bases that could hold 18,000 troops each. These are usually described as way stations on the eventual route home for the Americans, places where they will stay while ever-more-capable Iraqi troops engage the insurgents on their own. But that will clearly take time. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top military commander in Iraq, when asked this month about how the bases would be used, dismissed the question: "You're talking years away." And if Iraq's politics remain unstable, the bases could offer a continuing rationale for not providing heavier weaponry, since the Americans would still be close by for the Iraqis to rely on.

....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/weekinreview/28smith.html

[lonestarnot]

37. Red rummy go eat some yellow cake!

<>

[0007]

38. Anyone that believes anything that Rusmfeld says is an idiot

a moron, and deserves a first class trip to the nearest mental institution.

[genieroze]

39. Ahhh, rhetorical sounds of Viet Nam.

[Imagevision]

40. Same ole sell-we will prevail at any cost. -then what? do we find OBL??

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

[BiggJawn]

41. Rumsferatu is crazier than a Shithouse Rat...

He can't get his finger on "The BUTTON" can he?

[info being]

42. Way to breed violent extremists at home, rummy.

Now fuck off.

[Amonester]

43. Rumsfailed = War Criminal (Should Be Sentenced Accordingly)

Civilized citizens of the world demand that this demented war criminal must be held accountable for his misdeeds, which include the torturing and murdering of innocent human beings detained without charges, and the killing and maiming of countless innocent civilians (+ US & coalition forces personel, and reporters, and...), using (among other means):

Depleted uranium: " US forces' use of depleted uranium weapons is 'illegal' "
http://www.sundayherald.com/32522

Cluster bombs: "Revealed: the cluster bombs that litter Iraq"
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,968181,00.html

Napalm: "US admits it used napalm bombs in Iraq"
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030810-napalm-iraq01.htm

Anyone who still gives this bandit's words any credibility and support is as guilty as he is.

[manic expression]

44. 'Come on boys! We got those Cheyenne right where we want 'em!

...

[Demeter]

45. I'll Have What He's Drinking

whenever I want to take leave of my senses.

[tblue37]

46. A few years ago I had a student in English 101

who was hoping to go to Annapolis. In order to have a chance, she needed a 4.0 her first year here. She used to say, "I will get a 4.0. That's all there is to it. It's an absolute necessity, so I will do it."

But she never studied or did anything else that might lead to a 4.0 average. It was as if she believed that repeatedly chanting the statement "I will get a 4.0. That's all there is to it. It's an absolute necessity, so I will do it" was a magic charm that would make it happen, simply because it was what she needed (i.e., wanted really badly) to happen.

She ended up with a very low-C average her first year.

[King Coal]

47. Staying the course with Rummy 101

"I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started."

"We do know of certain knowledge that he is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead."

"Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war."

"I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think, and, well, I assume it's what I said."

"The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." -on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

"If I said yes, that would then suggest that that might be the only place where it might be done which would not be accurate, necessarily accurate. It might also not be inaccurate, but I'm disinclined to mislead anyone."

"There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist."

"Well, um, you know, something's neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so, I suppose, as Shakespeare said."

"Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration except for those instances where Colin's still learning."

"Learn to say 'I don't know.' If used when appropriate, it will be often."

"I don't know what the facts are but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know."

"As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

[Gregorian]

48. He speaks the truth. FOR THE CORPORATIONS.

The American people have already lost. Oh, and don't forget the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. They lost, big time.

[speedingbullet]

50. Won't Lose?

The Bush administration never loses. They carefully avoid saying what it is we are supposed to be doing. This seems to true all fronts not just Iraq. Whatever state Iraq is in when Bush decides to leave, that is what we were trying to do. Kind of reminds me of an Alice in Wonderland line, 'If you don't know where you are going, then it doesn't matter which direction you take'. Not an exact quote, sorry.

[noonwitch]

51. I hope we don't lose in Iraq, but it's not looking good right now.

We never should have gone there to begin with, but now we are there and I would like to see Iraq get a democracy and some stability.

[prayin4rain]

57. Me too.

What a nightmare that we are involved in this war, but since we are, I hope for a myriad of reasons.... that we "win".

[pauldavid]

52. Good Line to use against Chicken-hawks.

People who wanted to go to war in Iraq were "wrong yesterday, they're wrong today, and they'll be wrong tomorrow."

[underpants]

53. excuse me Rummy you all said it would be perfect

remember?

[calimary]

55. Man, I would LOVE some of whatever he's smokin'...

rummy's at it again. How lovely. MAN, this guy may even have a greater track record of "everything he says is the exact opposite of reality" than even chicken george.

[Lilith Velkor]

56. We ARE SO winning the war on drugs!

How else do you think Rummy has access to the good shit? :smoke:

[samsingh]

59. just think about how scary this statement really is.

America, the only superpower in the world, that used to strike fear into every other country - now has the Secretary of Defense arguing that a war in Iraq would not be lost. A few years ago this would not even be an issue.

what fear can bush strike into China now?