LAT op-ed by Donald Rumsfeld: This is what I meant...

[DeepModem Mom]

New Enemies Demand New Thinking
The secretary of Defense clarifies and expands on what he said in his recent speeches about appeasing extremists.
By Donald H. Rumsfeld, DONALD H. RUMSFELD is the U.S. secretary of Defense.
September 1, 2006

....We are again engaged in conflicts that are testing whether we believe that the defense of liberty is worth the cost. And again, there are those who disagree with the mission, who question whether it is worth the sacrifice. This is to be expected in a time of war.

Today, some think that World War II and the Cold War were black-and- white affairs: good versus evil. But there were always those who thought that we should retreat within our borders.

In an effort to avoid repeating the carnage of World War I, much of the Western world tried to appease the growing threats in Europe and Asia in the years before World War II. Those who warned against the rise of Nazism, fascism and communism were often ridiculed and ignored.

The enemy we face today is different from the enemies we have faced in the past, but its goal is similar: to impose its fanatical ideology of hatred on the rest of the world....

***

...I do worry about the lack of perspective in our national dialogue — a perspective on history and the new challenges and threats that free people face today. Those who know the truth need to speak out against the myths and distortions being told about our troops and our country. My remarks at the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion conventions have generated much discussion. I encourage everyone to read what I actually said at defenselink.mil/speeches.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rumsfeld1sep01,0,2316909.story

[Justitia]

1. Oh, good lord. Same song AND verse. Keep digging, Donald. -eom

[IChing]

2. "Those who know the truth need to speak out "

"against the myths and distortion" and that is why there was a national outcry you war criminal!

[Yoda Yada]

3. "Those" who know.....

Was he talking about Republican "those", or Democrat "those" (or both) who know the truth?

"Those" like General Shinseki, Paul O'Neil, Richard Clarke, Hans Blix, Joseph Wilson....and the list goes on.

You may now start getting some ACCURATE answers to your "myths and distortions" statement, Mr. Rumsfeld.

[Marr]

4. I can think of no better example of ignoring the lessons of history than

Donald Rumsfeld. The man was in the highest levels of government during the Vietnam War, yet he's spent years pushing for a new Vietnam, based on a sort of reverse-Domino Theory.

[TahitiNut]

5. Don must have never learned about the Marshal Plan.

His portrayal of the years between WW1 and WW2 is almost total fiction. WW2 should more aptly be called "WW Part 2" since the treatment of Germany (millions and millions of human beings) under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles was appalling. Enormous reparations and economic oppression created bitterness in Germany that made the rise of ultra-nationalism unavoidable. The bankers in the US were more than eager to make loans and hold the German debt - profit was King.

[donco6]

12. Exactly right, TahitiNut.

The rise of German Hitler and German militarism was due almost exclusively to the Treaty of Versailles. Before Lebensraum, before the Sudetenland or Alsace-Lorraine, Hitler rose to power railing against the Treaty and what it had done to Germany and Germans.

People gladly accept a tyrant who promises to throw off a yoke. He's even greated with flowers and kisses.

[rodeodance]

6. te he. he is upset about the 'gulag of our times"

.......We also should be aware that the struggle is too important — the consequences too severe — to allow a "blame America first" mentality to overwhelm the truth that our nation, though imperfect, is a force for good in the world.

Consider that a database search of the nation's leading newspapers turns up 10 times as many mentions of one of the soldiers punished for misconduct at Abu Ghraib than of Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in the global war on terror.

Then there is the case of Amnesty International, a long-respected human-rights organization, which called the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay the "gulag of our times" — a reference to the vast system of Soviet prisons and labor camps where innocent citizens were starved, tortured and murdered. The facility at Guantanamo Bay, by contrast, includes a volleyball court, basketball court, soccer field and library (the book most requested is "Harry Potter"). The food, served in accordance with Islamic diets, costs more per detainee than the average U.S. military ration.

[Jim__]

7. "...whether we believe that the defense of liberty is worth the cost..."

Ummm, no. There's a simple answer to that, the defense of liberty is worth just about any cost. The question here is, "What the hell does the war in Iraq have to do with the defense of liberty?"

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. I wish all of these thugs would stop telling us what we think!

:grr: I am sick and tired of their condescending "patriotic" horseshit!

[sidpleasant]

9. re: "there were those who thought we should retreat within our borders"

Those Hitler appeasers were called "REPUBLICANS". Rummie is very familiar with one of them, a guy named Gerald Ford. He signed a pro - isolation petition while a student at Yale. Then there's Shrub's sleazy grandfather Prescott Bush who had several of his companies siezed under the Trading With The Enemy Act. The GOP in the 1930s was full of isolationists who argued that the US had no place in a struggle against fascism.

Rumsfeld as usual falls back on the standard GOP straw man tactic here: "there are those..." without ever identifying by name a single one of those alleged appeasers.

[Dhalgren]

10. This is the lie that must be questioned and no one ever does:

"The enemy we face today (wishes) to impose its fanatical ideology of hatred on the rest of the world...."

I want Rumsfeld and whoever else says this to show me the source for this statement. Al-Quaeda has never said that it wanted to take over the world - "terrorists" by their very nature are not only incapable of any kind of "takeover", but their goals, by necessity, must be very limited and parochial. This grandiose talk of fighting against a "power" that wants to "rule the world" is just such silly, amateurish bullshit, and if thousands of human beings were not being maimed and killed every day by US actions and inaction, it would be laughable.

The Bushists think that they can just change the meanings of words and events and movements into anything they want and everyone will just nod along in agreement. They cannot have it both ways: if they are fighting "terrorism", then it has no global dominance aims; if they are fighting some sort of organization with designs for world conquest, then they need to point out who they are and show proof for their assertions....bullshit...

[bluedeminredstate]

14. Excellent post.

Thank you for putting this very clearly and concisely to words. They do this almost every time one of the gang members speaks publicly and it's distressing to watch the WH, Pentagon and State dept. press corps sit on their hands and repeat what was said without ever challenging them.
"Islamic Fascists" is one of their new pet phrases, but what the fuck does it really mean? Be nice to hear a reporter ask the Chimp and watch him babble incoherently.

[bobthedrummer]

11. Donald Henry Rumsfeld.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1346

[Solly Mack]

13. I hear the troops speak all the time, Rumsfeld - and Gee,

most of the ones I live around aren't heaping any praises on you, Bush or America's wars

Keeping in mind my entire community is military.