Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy by Andrew Cockburn. Scribner, New York, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-3574-4. Price: US$25, 247 pages.
A fine review of Cockburn's well-informed study by Pepe Escobar:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IC21Ak11.html
It concludes, referring to Cockburn's narrative of the latest stage of Rumsfeld's career :
Rumsfeld's steep, accelerated downfall has been extensively documented - and Cockburn's narrative does not add too much on "unknown unknowns". He could have expanded the crucial point that "few in the internal American debate seemed to understand that it was the occupation itself that had ignited Iraqi resistance" - as there are still very few American analysts who dare to accept the obvious. Corporate media have now switched to an "Iraqis killing Iraqis" mantra, barbaric Arabs killing Arabs as if the occupation had nothing to do with it.
No noble mission here. This was a naked, imperial power grab that went spectacularly wrong because of a deadly mix of arrogance and incompetence - hubris redux. Donald Rumsfeld, as Cockburn mentions at the end, may land a fabulous book contract to tell "his" truth. He may pepper the lecture circuit with his pearls of newspeak. He may enrich the corporate world with his "government connections". But he will always remain the hollow man, the stuffed man, head filled with straw who dreamed he would be king when he was only a lowly fixer.
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Comments: 17
Censorship on gather , of which Tom Gerace et al. are the prime "manufacturering agents" makes it surprising that you even found my article. A detailed examination of how gather works and censors, I have made available elsewhere , and ,when I have added further evidence , it will be published in a fuller form for a popular journal.
Hardened criminals like Rumsfeld do not have sufficient capacity for self-reflection and self-criticism to see the enormity of their mistakes.
Historians will point to these years as a 'turning point" in the fortunes of the American people. In fear and complacency, we allowed ourselves to be browbeaten into becoming just like our enemies.
I''ve "lost" a few articles when I tried to publish; or an older draught would come up with the entire comments from another article. I just chalked it up to my computer illiteracy and clutziness at the keyboard -- which is legendary. But, it was strange. I lost three previously posted articles trying to retrieve or fix them up. Perhaps it was one of their bandwidth fix endeavors.
This is probably way off the subject here, but while I am thinking about it I feel a need to write something down.
Tonight (and last night also) Scarboro (sp) on MSNBC made a really big deal about Rosie Odonnell (sp) and Barbara Walters relationship on Barbara's Morning show the View (or what ever, I never turn a TV on before 1800) ... the point being that he takes what she said out of context and spins and twists (distorts) it besides to portray her as way out of line and Walters also for allowing it. That is a form of censure in my opinion, very sick that a major 'news' (?) personality is doing what he is ... but why should I be surprised, it is standard fare, always has been on Faux.
There, documented at least.
I think part of his problem is that he was too old for the job. Another problem was that he and Cheney seem to have formed this cabal to "get the job done" and sort of ignore the guy who was ostensibly in charge, GWB, but who seems to have never been a detail oriented guy. The whole dynamics of the Iraq event played out in such a bizarre fashion, with meetings that decided nothing because it had all been decided in advance by Cheney.
Where i draw the line is the impeachment of Bush, and I draw it for reasons of principle and civility. I think the case to impeach him is not overwhelming, and we need to avoid putting a chip on the shoulder of the right wing. Give him enough rope to hang himself and figure that a true conservative will not be electable in 2008. The problem with this is that we have challenges like global warming that cannot wait two years. But very sadly, it will have to wait.