Rummy caught with his pants down...

[kpete]

Kenneth Adelman, a member of Donald Rumsfeld’s advisory Defense Policy Board: So he says, It might be best if you got off the Defense Policy Board. You’re very negative. I said, I am negative, Don. You’re absolutely right. I’m not negative about our friendship. But I think your decisions have been abysmal when it really counted.

Start out with, you know, when you stood up there and said things—“Stuff happens.” I said, That’s your entry in Bartlett’s. The only thing people will remember about you is “Stuff happens.” I mean, how could you say that? “This is what free people do.” This is not what free people do. This is what barbarians do. And I said, Do you realize what the looting did to us? It legitimized the idea that liberation comes with chaos rather than with freedom and a better life. And it demystified the potency of American forces. Plus, destroying, what, 30 percent of the infrastructure.

I said, You have 140,000 troops there, and they didn’t do jack shit. I said, There was no order to stop the looting. And he says, There was an order. I said, Well, did you give the order? He says, I didn’t give the order, but someone around here gave the order. I said, Who gave the order?

So he takes out his yellow pad of paper and he writes down—he says, I’m going to tell you. I’ll get back to you and tell you. And I said, I’d like to know who gave the order, and write down the second question on your yellow pad there. Tell me why 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq disobeyed the order. Write that down, too.

And so that was not a successful conversation.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/02/bush-oral-history200902?currentPage=8

[Kokonoe]

1. Its getting complicated. nt

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. That Vanity Fair article

should be required reading for every American. It should be taught in high schools in Government classes.

I sent it to everyone I know, and, like me, no one could read it for more than fifteen or twenty minutes without having to get up and walk away from it because we started going blind with rage.

It really is a must-read.

[roguevalley]

14. vanity fair puts out an article like that every month. subscribe. I do.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

22. I do, and

I have for a long, long time. In fact, it's my favorite Xmas gift to give. Their gift rates are excellent.

[ensho]

3. nothing will be OK until Rummy is in prison

nothing will be OK until the criminal, murderous neo cons are in prison.

we can be carted away for toking.

what's it take to get these murderers in prison? Courage?

[yellowcanine]

4. Well that's nice. But Adelman's hands are very dirty also.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96827880

"An early and ardent supporter of the Iraq war, Adelman was formerly on the Defense Policy Board during part of the Bush administration."

Adelman ended up backing Obama, yes, but his only objection to the Iraq war was how it was conducted.

[formercia]

8. Adelman suffers from Windsock Syndrome

it depends on which way the wind is blowing.

[Wiley50]

5. " DON'T LOOK, ETHEL!!! " n/t

[Gold Metal Flake]

10. Too late.

She'd already been incensed.

[SmileyRose]

32. Flashed her right there in front of the shock absorbers

[indepat]

6. Proud to have bumped this expose to the greatest page

:D

[TacticalPeek]

7. If you happen to have any high explosives at hand,

be sure to have a friend come by and store them in a safe place unknown to you before reading this.

[yodermon]

9. A Jay Garner quote that I need help with (anyone?)

So we said, O.K., we’ll bring the army back. Our plan was to bring back about 250,000 of them. And I briefed Rumsfeld. He agreed. Wolfowitz agreed. Condoleezza Rice agreed. George {Tenet} agreed. Briefed the president on it. He agreed. Everybody agreed.

So when that decision {to disband} was made, I was stunned.

Ok. So he lists a bunch of neo-cons which apparently thought the Iraqi army *shouldn't* be disbanded.

So, who reversed the order? Cheney?

(apologies if it's later in the article, i haven't finished it)

[Azooz]

12. Bremer,

Fromt he VF article, but not %100 certain and there was a lot of information to that decision realted to the operations of the death squads to:

May 1, 2003 Aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, under a banner reading, mission accomplished, Bush proclaims that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” Meanwhile, decisions have been made that will inadvertently prolong major combat operations, chief among them the disbanding of the Iraqi Army. The responsibility for this decision, which is promulgated by the new U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, remains unclear.

[Marrah_G]

11. BAD BAD VISUAL

:puke:

:spank:

[progressoid]

17. Ya...ewww.

[Kaleko]

13. K & R

[Uncle Joe]

15. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[bushmeister0]

16. "I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?"

Let's try taking him up on this boast. Why don't you try hangings from your wrists for 8 hours, Rummy, and tell us how good it feels?

[beac]

25. I've always liked imagining that Rummy worked standing up b/c he had a chronic case

of raging hemorrhoids. :)

[bushmeister0]

26. I thought those were on his mouth, judging by all the shit that came out of it.

[NoSheep]

28. ooooooh...i like that one.

:D

[billybob537]

35. I thought it was becouse--

He couldn't get Doug Fieth out of his asshole!

[G_j]

18. wow, no love loss there!

Almost makes Kenneth Adelman sound sane. :shrug:

[Hekate]

19. Wow. I didn't know that anyone ever tried to talk sense into Rummy except the ex-generals.

[Enrique]

20. this guy didn't either

he's just a neocon trying to salvage his reputation.

this is Adelman 4/10/03 when all the neocons were riding high, mocking the silly war critics and patting themselves on the back, before they threw Rummy and Bush under the bus.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1512-2003Apr9

But now is an occasion for pride, and for thanks to our fighting men and women and those leading them. My confidence 14 months ago sprang from having worked for Don Rumsfeld three times -- knowing he would fashion a most creative and detailed war plan -- and from knowing Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz well for many years.

[Enrique]

21. and Adelman's entry in Bartlett's will be "cakewalk"

he and the rest of them can throw Rumsfeld under all the buses they can find, they will still be remembered as WRONG.

[peacetalksforall]

23. What a great way to phrase it - Bartlett's. Yes, that is the way he is going to

be remembered. He got on a high when all the Republican press sat there and LAUGHED at his jokes. He never came off the high. Joking until the end.

Do we believe that he left the Pentagon yet? Does he still have an office there? Does he still live on Misery Farm of slavery fame?

Wait a minute - there are two things he will be remembered for - Bartlett's and Misery Farm or Plantation or whatever it was called.

He's going to rank high when THE SORRY PIECE OF HUMANITY AWARD comes around.

What was it that brought Rumsfeld and Cheney together for the ruination of this country?

[olegramps]

33. The PNAC brought them together.

[quidam56]

24. Germany tried to capture Rumsfield in Paris but

we saved his ass and got him on a plane to the motherland ! It's pretty bad when a former Nazi nation is trying to net our Patriotic American hero. Hope Bush goes overseas for a chat with his oil pals. They can say all they want about Bush keeping US safe from another terrorist attack since 9/11, he is a TOXIC TERRORIST ! Stop Bombing Appalachia http://www.wisecountyissues.com

[gristy]

27. I see Adelman covering his ass all over the place

Kenneth Adelman, a member of Donald Rumsfeld’s advisory Defense Policy Board: I said to Rumsfeld, Well, the way you handled Abu Ghraib I thought was abysmal. He says, What do you mean? I say, It broke in January of—what was that, ‘04? Yeah, ‘04. And you didn’t do jack shit till it was revealed in the spring. He says, That’s totally unfair. I didn’t have the information. I said, What information did you have? You had the information that we had done these—and there were photos. You knew about the photos, didn’t you? He says, I didn’t see the photos. I couldn’t get those photos. A lot of stuff happens around here. I don’t follow every story. I say, Excuse me, but I thought in one of the testimonies you said you told the president about Abu Ghraib in January. And if it was big enough to tell the president, wasn’t it big enough to do something about? He says, Well, I couldn’t get the photos. I say, You’re secretary of defense. Somebody in the building who works for you has photos, and for five months you can’t get photos—hello?

As I read more I'm sure I'll see others doing the same thing - covering their asses.

[struggle4progress]

29. "So that was not a successful conversation." Nor most others for eight years

[BrklynLiberal]

30. I thought you meant literally..in a men's room, like Larry Craig!!!

[chill_wind]

31. Yeah.

Among Adelman's other claims about Iraq:

"Hussein constitutes the number one threat against American security and civilization" (Adelman, "Cakewalk in Iraq," Washington Post, February 13, 2002).

After the anthrax scare in Washington, D.C.:

"I think the most likely source of this is Iraq." He went on to say, "But to tell you the truth, I don't think we have to show evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Iraq is behind a lot of the terrorism right now. Listen, this is not a court of law that we need this kind of evidence. It is war we're talking about." (Fox News, October 25, 2001)

[jimshoes]

34. I just love seeing stories

pointing out the overall creepiness and detestableness (if there is such a word) of ol' donnie rumsfeld. He deserves it. A lot!