Liar

Mike Whitney
May. 10, 2006

Rumsfeld is a pathological liar.

Nothing he says can be trusted. In 6 years, he’s never uttered a completely reliable statement, just convoluted pronouncements that have to be parsed by experts. That’s why it was so satisfying to see him skewered by Ray McGovern’s questions. McGovern had Rumsfeld backpedaling like he’d just been harpooned. Honesty has that kind of effect on people like Rumsfeld; that’s why they surround themselves with goons like a Mafia kingpin. They need a human-shield to protect them from the truth.

The American people have been ripped off big-time by Rummy. From the onset, it’s been one wretched excuse after another. Nothing is ever his fault; not the occupation; not the lack of soldiers; not the looting in Baghdad, not the faulty-armor, not the resistance, nothing. Ever!

Every errant bomb, every wayward missile, every downed helicopter, every dead soldier, is someone else’s fault.

Teflon Don; the biggest buck-passing narcissist the country has ever produced.

When the photos showed up from Abu Ghraib, Rumsfeld feigned surprise. “A few bad apples”, he moaned. Now we know he did everything except fit the prisoners with women’s underwear.

Nice touch, eh?

Now he’s deployed troops in the United States and has a regional headquarters in Colorado (NorthCom) to spy on American citizens; all part of a sick plan to militarize the country and show everyone what a smart guy he is.

That’s what it’s all about isn’t it? An egomaniac trying to show everyone how brilliant he is? The only problem is he’s failed at everything he’s tried. Every part of the occupation has been so badly botched it’s totally beyond repair. Now, the London-based Senlis-Council is reporting that Afghanistan is unraveling, too.

Should we be surprised?

Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti; flop, flop, flop, one failure after another.

“We know where the weapons are…they’re in the area around Tikrit”.

What a joke; it’s like a carnival huckster pitching snake-oil to farm boys; nothing but smoke and mirrors; nothing but intellectual flatulence.

Or this:

“As we know, there are known knowns. And 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.”

What type of flim-flam is that? Just more smart-ass, circuitous bullshit meant to impress and confuse; the clever blabbering of confidence man.

Is that what passes for honesty at the Pentagon?

This is what the truth sounds like:

“The decision to invade Iraq, was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions — or bury the results." Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold

That’s right; “or bury the results”.

Here’s another Rumsfeld gem describing the war on terror:

“Things will not be necessarily continuous. The fact that they are something other than perfectly continuous ought not to be characterized as a pause. There will be some things that people will see. There will be some things that people won't see. And life goes on” (Oct. 12, 2001, Department of Defense news briefing)

More tortured language; more oblique banter; more meaningless gibberish.

Now, compare that to the candor of one of his strongest critics:

(Rumsfeld is) “incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically” he has “put the Pentagon at the mercy of his ego, his Cold-Warrior’s view of the world, and his unrealistic confidence in technology to replace manpower.” Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton.

Bull’s-eye!

So what’s Rumsfeld’s reward for 6 years of bungling?

Now, he’s trying to suck the CIA into the War Department so he’ll have control over the entire intelligence budget. That way he can carry out his criminal renditions and deploy his global paramilitaries in complete secrecy. It’s another giant step towards a military dictatorship.

Here’s a short-list of Rumsfeld’s more memorable lies.

A month before the invasion of Iraq Rumsfeld boasted on PBS’ News Hour that Americans would “be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq…There’s no question but that they will be welcomed”.

Lie. No candy, no flowers, no cakewalk.

Here’s the Pollyanna-way he characterized the “success” in Afghanistan, where the countryside is still 100% controlled by warlords and drug-dealers and where Bush’s Marshall Plan has never materialized:

“Go back to Afghanistan. The people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and Al Qaida would not let them do.”

“Flying kites”? What baloney.

Here’s Rumsfeld on Saddam’s weapons programs:

6 months before the invasion, he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2002, and said, “His regime has amassed large clandestine stockpiles of biological weapons” as well as “large clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons”.

Wrong again.

He insisted that Saddam had stockpiles “of VX nerve agent, sarin, mustard gas, anthrax, botulism and possibly smallpox”. Later he would claim that Saddam produced, “38,000 liters of botulism toxin, 500 tons of sarin, and upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical weapons” as well as mobile biological-weapons labs.

What utter nonsense. These numbers were picked out of mid-air with no factual basis whatsoever. The intelligence community had no part in this charade; it was all cooked up by Rumsfeld’s stooges in the OSP (Office of Special Plans) so they could drag the country to war.

In 2002 Rumsfeld addressed the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and told them he had “bulletproof” evidence linking Saddam to Al Qaida; another lie designed to connect Saddam to 9-11.

When Rumsfeld was challenged about his claim, he protested,

“Never said that…never did. You may remember it well, but you’re thinking of someone else. You can’t find anywhere me saying anything like either of those two things you just said. I may look like someone else.”

No, Rumsfeld does not “look like someone else”; he’s the same unctuous, medicine man whose been pedaling his claptrap from the Pentagon-platform for 6 years. He piggy-backed the nation to war on a pack of lies and now he’s leading the charge to attack Iran.

It’s all been lies; Iraq, Iran, 9-11, Katrina, the war on terror; “a vast tapestry of lies” as Harold Pinter noted. Not a speck of truth to any of it.

The American people are being set up for the next big performance; another terrorist attack on the “homeland”. Rumsfeld will undoubtedly spearhead the crackdown on Muslims, leftists, intellectuals, political enemies, union leaders and anyone else who might pose a threat to his crackpot master-plan. His scheme is bound to fail just like everything else, but not before thousands are either “disappeared”, brutalized or dumped in a land-fill somewhere. Destruction is the only thing for which Rumsfeld has shown any particular aptitude. I expect he will continue to perfect this one, solitary talent.