In
a little-known 1974 document entitled "Rumsfeld’s
Rules," the Secretary of Defense offers his philosophy on
life and work. But how well does Rumsfeld follow his own rules? Here’s
a sampler of quotes from the text, followed by Rumsfeld’s actual performance.
1. "You
and the White House staff must be seen to be above suspicion."
Rumsfeld
made a series of odd statements right after 9/11. When asked why
the government had not foreseen a terrorist attack on US soil, he
responded "There were lots of warnings." In the next breath
he tried to deflect guilt from the Pentagon with, "But the state
and local law enforcement officials have the responsibility for dealing
with those kinds of issues." Rumsfeld then added "... we’re
talking about plastic knives and using an American Airlines flight
filed with our citizens and the missile to damage the building."
OK, let’s get this straight. There were lots of warnings? Local officials
are responsible for terrorism prevention? THE MISSILE?
2. "Be
precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error
is small."
During a Department of Defense news briefing (Feb 12, 2002) Rumsfeld
was asked if there was any evidence Iraq had supplied terrorists with
weapons of mass destruction. His response:
"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."
Thanks for clearing that up, Mr. Secretary ...
3. "Don’t
do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of the
Washington Post."
Or better yet, manipulate the media to your own advantage. At a recent
Pentagon "town hall" meeting, Rumsfeld was asked how media
war coverage could be improved. His response, "penalize the papers
and the television ... that don’t give good advice and reward those
people that do give good advice."
You know we’re in trouble when accurate news reporting is confused
with the Pentagon’s idea of "good advice."
4. "When
cutting staff at the Pentagon, don’t eliminate the thin layer that
assures civilian control."
Civilian control? How about P2OG (Proactive, Preemptive Operations
Group), the Pentagon’s proposal to stimulate terrorists into making
attacks, leaving them open to counterattacks by US forces; in other
words, to provoke terrorist attacks against US citizens in order to
save US citizens from terrorist attacks.
Feeling safer?
And while you’re watching those July 4th fireworks this
year, bear in mind Rumsfeld’s staffers have been urging city officials
across the country to include
the Iraq war in their Independence Day celebrations. According
to one Orange County official, "I got the impression that they
had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics
permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program."
Spontaneous displays of appreciation for the troops? Calls to support
service members by bringing them back home? Hell no! Better to label
an invasion "liberation" and manufacture domestic support
for even more foreign adventures.
Then of course, maybe Rumsfeld was just trying to make nice after
insulting fallen service members and the nation’s capitol with, "You
got to remember that if Washington, D.C., were the size of Baghdad,
we would be having something like 215 murders a month. There’s
going to be violence in a big city." In other words, the
death of US troops in Iraq is just a statistic.
The D.C. gaffe is reminiscent of an earlier Rumsfeld comment that
draftees
to Vietnam offered "no value, no advantage, really, to the
United States armed services over any sustained period of time, because
the churning that took place, it took enormous amount of effort in
terms of training, and then they were gone." Gone indeed: 58,152
US troops killed in Vietnam, 20,352 of them draftees.
5. "Remember
the public trust."
Testifying to the Armed Services Committee, Rumsfeld denied knowledge
the US had ever sent biological weapons to Iraq, despite a widely-read
1994 Senate Report explicitly documenting such sales.
And of course, while Rumsfeld warns of rogue states holding America
"hostage to nuclear blackmail," he forgets to mention he
sat on the board of a company that helped create North Korea’s nuclear
program.
Memory lapses or downright lies? Either way, not doing much to inspire
trust.
And who can forget Rumsfeld’s proposed "Defense Transformation
Act" which would eliminate whistleblower protections, unions
and appeal rights for all DoD employees, exempt the Pentagon from
anti-pollution and wildlife protection laws, and make it harder for
Congress to keep tabs on the Pentagon. As if that weren’t enough,
the Act (which critics have dubbed "The
Halliburton bill of rights") would hand the Pentagon unprecedented
powers to authorize no-bid service contracts worth billions.
6. "It’s
easier to get into something than to get out of it."
Afghanistan and Iraq, for example.
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Heather
Wokusch is a free lance writer. She can be reached via her web
site.
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