Who can forget Donald Rumsfeld, one-time Defence Secretary in the Bush Administration? It's probably not unfair to describe the man as inept, incompetent and far from being on top of his job.
He is about to launch his memoirs. Mother Jones reports......
"In his new book deftly titled Known and Unknown, former Defense Secreatry Donald Rumsfeld insists that he and the Bush-Cheney crew did not purposefully misrepresent the WMD case for the Iraq war: "The President did not lie. The Vice President did not lie. Tenet did not lie. Rice did not lie. I did not lie. The Congress did not lie. The far less dramatic truth is that we were wrong." He does acknowledge that he made a "few misstatements," referring specifically only to one: when he declared early in the war, "We know where they [the WMDs] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
In the book, Rumsfeld claims that he should have referred to "suspect sites." But, he says, his "few misstatements" were "not common and certainly not characteristic." The intelligence at time regarding Iraq's WMDS, he writes now, was strong. Yet he cites a note he wrote to himself in August 2002 that the intel "could be wrong"—as if to demonstrate his prescience and open-mindedness. And he insists in the book that Saddam Hussein's purported (but nonexistent) WMD stockpile was "only one of the many reasons for the war."
Rumsfeld is engaging in revisionism on these fronts. His incorrect statements about Iraq's WMDs were quite common. Even though he may have thought the intelligence could be wrong, he repeatedly declared in public there was no possibility Saddam was not neck-deep in WMDs. And he often said the reason for the war were Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. So, as a public service, here is a partial list of the many Rumsfeld "misstatements" that he does not address in his 813-page memoir."
Continue reading here to revisit some of Rumsfeld's statements.
He is about to launch his memoirs. Mother Jones reports......
"In his new book deftly titled Known and Unknown, former Defense Secreatry Donald Rumsfeld insists that he and the Bush-Cheney crew did not purposefully misrepresent the WMD case for the Iraq war: "The President did not lie. The Vice President did not lie. Tenet did not lie. Rice did not lie. I did not lie. The Congress did not lie. The far less dramatic truth is that we were wrong." He does acknowledge that he made a "few misstatements," referring specifically only to one: when he declared early in the war, "We know where they [the WMDs] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
In the book, Rumsfeld claims that he should have referred to "suspect sites." But, he says, his "few misstatements" were "not common and certainly not characteristic." The intelligence at time regarding Iraq's WMDS, he writes now, was strong. Yet he cites a note he wrote to himself in August 2002 that the intel "could be wrong"—as if to demonstrate his prescience and open-mindedness. And he insists in the book that Saddam Hussein's purported (but nonexistent) WMD stockpile was "only one of the many reasons for the war."
Rumsfeld is engaging in revisionism on these fronts. His incorrect statements about Iraq's WMDs were quite common. Even though he may have thought the intelligence could be wrong, he repeatedly declared in public there was no possibility Saddam was not neck-deep in WMDs. And he often said the reason for the war were Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. So, as a public service, here is a partial list of the many Rumsfeld "misstatements" that he does not address in his 813-page memoir."
Continue reading here to revisit some of Rumsfeld's statements.
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