Rumsfeld says U.S. poorly communicating ideology

[bigtree]

Rumsfeld says we're losing the "battle of ideas" in the world. He's looking for a formula to get his message across.

"If I were grading I would say we probably deserve a `D' or a `D-plus' as a country as to how well we're doing in the battle of ideas that's taking place in the world today," he told a questioner at the Army War College. "I'm not going to suggest that it's easy, but we have not found the formula as a country"

You can say what you will about the four years of spin and blather by Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice, and Rumsfeld himself, but their entire foreign policy presentation was, if nothing else, the most collossal and zealously sustained deception in the history of our nation's government.

Rumsfeld has tried every angle his Metamucil-induced psyche could conjure to support the new imperialism of the Bush regime and to cast the victims of his militarism as allies of the elusive perpetrators of the 9-11 attacks when they inevitably rose up to defend their lives and their homeland. Here are a few of Rumsfeld's 'ideas':


We're not running out of targets. Afghanistan is.
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2002/0211coldam_body.html

I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6950-2004Jun25.html

We do know of certain knowledge that he is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/terrorism/july-dec01/binladen_12-27a.html

We would be happy to capture them, we'd be happy to have them surrender, and if they don't, we'd be happy to kill them.
http://www.usembassy.it/file2003_12/alia/a3120901.htm

I know in my heart and my brain that America ain’t what’s wrong with the world.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4191028/from/RL.4

You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/t01232003_t0122sdfpc.html

I'm hopeful that some will surrender. I suspect some won't, and I suspect the result of that will be that the opposition forces will kill them.
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2001/t11262001_t1126sd.html

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.
http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/2005/08/and-now-rumsfeld-jumps-in.html

The enemies of order and democracy and freedom and civil society and rule of law have brains, regrettably. And they use those brains and they adapt.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20041115-1604-rumsfeld.html

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.
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2002/t06062002_t0606sd.html

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.
http://www.jokeswarehouse.com/cgi-bin/viewjoke2.cgi?id=20050528

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.
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Foot_in_Mouth_award

He claims to have no chemical or biological weapons, yet we know he continues to hide biological and chemical weapons, moving them to different locations as often as every 12 to 24 hours, and placing them in residential neighbourhoods.
http://www.wincom.net/~kbell/PA/rummy.html


Robert Fisk wrote that,

"Everyone in the Middle East rewrites history, but never before have we had a US administration so wilfully, dishonestly and ruthlessly reinterpreting tragedy as success, defeat as victory, death as life . . ."

[BlueEyedSon]

1. No, I read the PNAC docs. They were loud and clear.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Wrong as usual. The "ideology" of imperialism is all too apparant.

Trying to dress it up to look like the Statue of Liberty isn't working any more.

[malaise]

3. Tell Rummy deeds do way more harm than

ideas. Fugg him.

Edit - sp.

[Disturbed]

6. Rumsfailed is a War Criminal and an Incompetent Fool.

Dressing up Neo Facist Imperialism in Uncle Sam clothes may fool some people but most of the world isn't fooled so easily.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. I would say the BFEE is getting their ideas of oligarchy, fascism and

money-grabbing greed across very clearly.

[yellowcanine]

5. Someone needs to remind Rummy that in the "battle of ideas" it is the pen,

not the sword, that will prevail. People tend not to care too much about your "ideas" when you have your boot on their neck. They just want you to move the boot.

[Squatch]

7. US to foreign country: You will be free or we'll invade, occupy

and force it down your throat.

[annabanana]

8. as usual... it's all marketing.. . . . . facts are irrelevant.

Talk about yer "johnny one-note"...

[bigtree]

9. The Iraqi's message is simple . . .

leave us alone and get out.

[walldude]

10. Yeah well torturing people and blowing up their country

definitely gives the wrong impression :eyes:

[bigtree]

11. message:

we don't care

[Swamp Rat]

12. No, we got the message Rummy: Death and hatred to humankind