Rumsfeld: Really, I didn't advocate this clusterfick

[bendog]

Yesterday:
The next day, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rejected Khalilzad's announcement and said his government had not agreed to anything. President Bush responded that al-Maliki was correct in saying mandates could not be imposed on Iraq, but said the United States would not have unlimited patience.

"You ought to just back off, take a look at it, relax, understand that it's complicated, it's difficult," Rumsfeld said regarding deadlines. "Honorable people are working on these things together. There isn't any daylight between them."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/rumsfeld

NARRATOR: All that day, Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney were in close contact with the president. They argued there would have to be retaliation, not just against bin Laden but also against nations that may have helped al Qaeda, nations like Iraq.

Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

BOB WOODWARD: The night of 9/11, at a small group meeting of the principals, Rumsfeld actually puts Iraq on the table and says, "Part of our response maybe should be attacking Iraq. It's an opportunity." So he was the first to mention it.

NARRATOR: So the neocons now had their opportunity to take on Saddam Hussein, and on September 13th, Wolfowitz personally took the case public.

REPORTER: The president has said that the United States intends to find those who were responsible for these attacks and hold them accountable. How should we look at that?

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, Deputy Secretary of Defense: Well, I think the president's words are pretty good, so let me say these people try to hide, but they won't be able to hide forever. They think their harbors are safe, but they won't be safe forever. I think one has to say it's not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable but removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism. And that's why it has to be a broaden and sustained campaign. It's not–

DAN BALZ, The Washington Post: And that was taken by everybody to be a sign that he felt that, at this point, we should go after Iraq. And it alarmed Powell and the people in the State Department, who again felt it was inflaming the situation, taking their eye off the real ball, which was to go after al Qaeda and Afghanistan.
THIS FRONTLINE PIECE IS A GOOD READ

Oh but wait, HE WASN'T EVEN ASKED if invading Iraq was a good idea! Of course, that's the ticket
The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has asserted he did not press for the US-led invasion of Iraq, as public disaffection for the US military operation there reaches new highs.

"I didn't advocate invasion," Rumsfeld told ABC television today when asked if he would have advocated an invasion of Iraq if he had known that no weapons of mass destruction would be found there.

The defence chief added: "I wasn't asked," when asked whether he supported the March 2003 invasion.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/iraq/r...421566802.html

[Rohirrim]

I'm currently reading Thomas Ricks' book, "Fiasco" about this whole CF. His take is that Wolfowitz is the main man behind this whole mess. He dreamed it up back in '91. He's been selling it ever since. Hell, he's the man that wrote the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war and all the rest. What did he do after all his plans were put into effect and went straight into the crapper? He bailed and became the president of World Bank. Ricks quotes one officer who says there's nobody on earth who he would rather put a bullet in their brainpan than Wolfowitz.

[bendog]

I think that is correct. I know wikpedia is out of style, but in this link, it discusses Wolfowitz's reagan years career and his conflict with Kilpatrick, who viewed exporting democracy as overly simplistic because it takes hundreds of years to develop a citizenry ready for democracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz

“Although most governments in the world are, as they always have been, autocracies of one kind or another, no idea hold greater sway in the mind of educated Americans than the belief that it is possible to democratize governments, anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances,” a belief which Kirkpatrick disagreed with as; “Decades, if not centuries, are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits.” This is known as the Kirkpatrick Doctrine

Wolfowitz famously broke from this official line by denouncing Saddam Hussein of Iraq at a time when Donald Rumsfeld, acting as Reagan's official envoy, was offering the dictator support in his conflict with Iran. As James Mann points out "quite a few neo-conservatives, like Wolfowitz, believed strongly in democratic ideals; they had taken from the philosopher Leo Strauss the notion that there is a moral duty to oppose a leader who is a 'tyrant.'"
dangerous idealists, these neocons can be.

PS, the link to the Frontline piece also went into Wolfowitz's conflict with Kissinger policy. Kissinger essentially was too much a moderate.

[fido]

democracy at gunpoint=priceless

[SPfloppy]

You know we never will find out just who the hell dreamed this whole thing up and I'm sorry but one look at this sad sack of tissue and I cannot in any way imagine this guy selling me a cigarette when I was out much less selling anyone in DC on going to war with someone who was a contained threat

[Rohirrim]

Read "Fiasco" to see just how contained Saddam was. He had nothing. It's friggin pathetic and an outrage to think of the Americans who have suffered and died for this stupidity. IMO, the invasion of Iraq will go down as the biggest blunder in American history.

[SPfloppy]

Oh no no no. Not nearly the biggest blunder. We did a fantastic job during the "major combat operations". Where we failed was Rummy telling Commanders to press on after meeting an objective and not securing those towns they had cleared. Insurgents came right back in while US forces met up at ORO's outside the towns.

The decision to go was flawed yes but the execution was well done

[SPfloppy]

I'd call the bay of Pigs or operation Mraket garden bigger blunders

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Rumsfeld is "best thing that's happened to the Pentagon in 25 years," says House Majority Leader in remarks that should have the troops laughing for the next month 10/30

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/29/...eld/trackback/

[bendog]

Damn, we shoulda seen it coming.

http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.o...s&code=01-D_76

Too bad WJC couldn't run again. They were pissed he wouldn't invade back in 1998