Author (Cockburn): A soldier asked Rumsfeld - shouldn't you have been more patient with WMD search?

[sabra]

http://www.truthdig.com/interview/page2/20070315_andrew_cockburns_rumsfeld_revelations/

<snip>

Harris: What do you think Donald Rumsfeld would say if he had a chance to respond to you about what you’ve written?

Cockburn: Oh, he’d probably say I was peddling al-Qaida disinformation. He’d change the subject. You know he’s very good at—I mean if he really chose to discuss it in detail, which he certainly wouldn’t, he would, he’d blame someone else. I mean there was a very telling moment I put at the end of the book where he, just a few days before he finally left the Pentagon, he went on a farewell tour to Iraq. And he went around various bases and he loved to have these town meetings where the soldiers who probably had better things to do but they would all be marched to sit in ranks in front and behind him so that, you know, make a nice picture, and he would lecture them, give of his wisdom for a bit and then invite questions ... this is the secretary of defense and they’re just poor soldiers in the field.... But in Mosul, a base outside Mosul this last time, one soldier got up and said: Don’t you think you wish now you’d been, shown a little bit more patience? In looking for, you know, the inspections, looking for weapons of mass destruction before you invaded Iraq? You know, don’t you think you should have waited awhile? And Rumsfeld said, “Interesting. But you’re talking to the wrong guy. It was the president who made that decision, the Congress made that decision.”

In other words right up to the very end he can’t face up to the fact, in front of the guys he’s put in harm’s way, he can’t face up to the fact that he sent them. You know that it was his decision. Oh, no, it was the president. It was the Congress. It was Rumsfeld all over.

[hadrons]

1. Dumsfail is using the Crusty the Clown defense ....

'Don't Look At Me; I didn't do it!!!'

[MADem]

2. Oh, come ON, now!! You go to war with the WMD searches you HAVE, NOT the WMD searches you would

LIKE to have, after all!!

Do I need to toss out one of these :sarcasm: for the irony-challenged?

[Dhalgren]

3. And you go to war with the SECDEF you have, not the one you would like to have...

Man, this could just go on and on. But I think that it is telling that one of the Ubercons is now saying "it was Congress who started this war". That is more telling than anything I have heard, yet. A new talking point was born amid the rubble of lives and country in Iraq - "Congress started the Iraq War"...

[MADem]

4. Yeah, the GOP will probably blame "we, the people" next! After all, WE sent those bums to Congress,

so it's OUR fault!!!

They just love to point that finger of blame anywhere and everywhere but at the 'Fearless Leader' who got us in this shitty fix!

[blm]

5. Weapon inspectors were reporting to Bush and to the UN, not congress.

Bush invaded DESPITE the call of many in congress to let the weapon inspections continue to prove military force was not needed.

[Dhalgren]

6. I can just see the article title in the WSJ or Moony Times,

"Why Congress went to war in Iraq: A Look at the Justifications Used by Congress for Its Failed War in Iraq"

[blm]

7. Exactly. Congress Forced Bush to Invade Iraq Despite His Misgivings

.

[sabra]

9. remember to Bush (Rove) it's all about how history will perceive him

seems like BushCo is trying to give history some pointers :-)

[Swede]

8. Here's Rumsfled clearing all the misunderstandings.

...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."


:shrug: