No more Donald Rumsfeld?

[1.5 million]

Wow farmall - I don't thing I've ever agreed with any post of yours as much as I agree with what you said in this one (certainly at least 50% agreement if not more..)

[Rune]

For quotes I prefer this one:

At a Nato summit in Prague, Donald Rumsfeld was once forced to sit though a performance of modern dance and poetry. Asked for his reaction afterwards, he shrugged: "I’m from Chicago."

When Rimbaud meets Rambo

Rumsfeld is a man from before they started to go all girlie-metrosexual.

[Mediocrates]

http://www.timble.me.uk/fun/item.php?id=25

From news article:

"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 mean ... I'm disinclined to mislead anyone."

Genius. Sort of. I guess.

[Kenneth]

Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse

Exclusive: A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the former Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo

Posted Friday, Nov. 10, 2006

Just days after his resignation, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."

A spokesperson for the Pentagon told TIME there would be no comment since the case has not yet been filed.

forced nudity - isn't that garment deprivation just dressed up differently?

[Mediocrates]

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p...earticle/2078/

From news article:

Rumsfeld’s was not some secret and dastardly plan to take over the Middle East whatever the cost to American soldiers or Iraqi civilians. Rather it was a fantasy war of liberation designed for the front pages of the papers. As I argued on spiked a week before the war began in March 2003: ‘America is hoping for a war without risk, using massive bombardments, special effects and plain old wishful thinking to compensate for traditional military engagement.’ (See Military disengagement, by Brendan O’Neill.) Rumsfeld was less a political hardman than a political fantasist – and everything that has gone wrong in Iraq since is a consequence of that old devil called reality getting in the way of the fantasy.

[farmall]

'‘America is hoping for a war without risk, using massive bombardments, special effects and plain old wishful thinking to compensate for traditional military engagement."

Which is why our opponents do things to work around that stupid strategy.

[Rune]

A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the former Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo

Lawsuits without representation? Well why not, perhaps they could consult the British and see how it worked out for them. In the meanwhile I'd like to file a lawsuit against various Germans for criminal stupidity. I'm seeking the death penalty.

forced nudity - isn't that garment deprivation just dressed up differently?

Perhaps the terrordude had a wardrobe malfunction? Anyway, “forced nudity and sexual humiliation”? Hell, there are people around here who are willing to good money for that. But at of course, the cartoons would have been cruel and unusual.

[takeo]

Posted by farmwall:

I think not. His strategy of bypassing instead of destroying the Iraqi forces left them free and armed to fight again.

?

His strategy of having too few troops let anarchy thrive and opposition forces coalesce in post-invasion disorder.

Nobody could predict how unstable Iraq was, not even Saddam himself.


His embracing of RMA lightfighter nonsense (despite the warnings of Somalia and Chechnya) killed and wounded my brother servicemen and women when they were sent to urban combat in light trucks (HMMWVs) instead of armored fighting vehicles of which we had plenty.

This is a tactical decision not a strategy. They experimented - they learned.


I have never in 25+ years seen a SecDef do so much damage.

In the last 25+ there was nothing of the sorts of what is happening today. I don't think any other Secrectary of Defence would have performed any differently. It just happened that 9/11 fell on Rumsfield's watch....

It was a deliberate decision to invade Iraq, the Bush-administration tried to tie it to 11th september but in reality it wasn't and they knew it. It was just an ideal moment to settle old scores with old ennemies. Many specialists predicted how bad this would turn out. (even me myself, I'm not a specialist but visited the country, btw Iraq wasn't unstable, only since the American invasion it became unstable) There were the largest mass-demonstrations since Vietnam. Many of America's traditional allies were opposed to this war, and Rumsfeld personally spoiled the bilateral relations by insulting them. Also the decision to anger much of the world opinion by erecting a gulag in Guantanamo was a deliberate decision. Even in his own party among the veterans of Middle-Eastern policy (the ones in charge during Bush senior's administration) he was not popular, and now they are beginning to reemerge.
Rumsfeld can't wash his hands in innocense. Of course he's just a scapegoat, the whole Bush-administration is responsible, Bush-junior in the first place.