Secretary of the Indefensible

Rumsfeld Lashes Out at Bush's Critics

Tuesday August 29, 2006
By Robert Burns
AP Military Writer

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday the world faces ``a new type of fascism'' and likened critics of the Bush administration's war strategy to those who tried to appease the Nazis in the 1930s.

In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the administration's critics as suffering from ``moral or intellectual confusion'' about what threatens the nation's security. His remarks amounted to one of his most pointed defenses of President Bush' war policies and was among his toughest attacks on Bush's critics.

Speaking to several thousand veterans at the American Legion's national convention, Rumsfeld recited what he called the lessons of history, including the failure to confront Hitler. He quoted Winston Churchill as observing that trying to accommodate Hitler was ``a bit like feeding a crocodile, hoping it would eat you last.''

``I recount this history because once again we facesimilar challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism,'' he said.

``Can we truly afford to believe that somehow, some way, vicious extremists can be appeased?'' he asked.

``Can we truly afford to return to the destructive view that America - not the enemy - is the real source of the world's troubles?''

Rumsfeld spoke to the American Legion as part of a coordinated White House strategy, in advance of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to take the offensive against administration critics at a time of doubt about the future of Iraq and growing calls to withdraw U.S. troops.

Rumsfeld recalled a string of recent terrorist attacks, from 9/11 to deadly bombings in Bali, London and Madrid, and said it should be obvious to anyone that terrorists must be confronted, not appeased.

``But some seem not to have learned history's lessons,'' he said, adding that part of the problem is that the American news media have tended to emphasize the negative rather than the positive.

At the risk of being labeled "shrill," or "lacking civility," the only conclusion I can come to, is that our Secretary of Defense is an unscrupulous bastard, without a shred of decency, honor, or respect for this country and its citizens.

There are points that can be argued and debated, but this is not one of them. To address Rumsfeld's odious comparisons with anything other than derision and abject contempt is to confer upon them a legitimacy that they do not merit in any way, shape, or form. And for all the negativity the traditional media allegedly emphasizes, they are guilty of doing just that, again and again. Calling this venom a "pointed defense" of administration policy, as is done in the second paragraph of the article, is akin to urinating on someone's shoes and calling it a "rebuttal."

Sometimes, "bugfuck insane," is just that.

Rumsfeld's comparisons are both intellectually and morally bankrupt. This type of mendacious demagoguery is the product of years of failure and mismanagement that carry with them, a stench that no amount of perfume can cover. Unable to defend his own record, he lashes out--foolishly and incorrectly--at everything else.

No American should have to explain why he isn't like a nazi-era appeaser because he disagrees with the president. And right now, that's the majority of the population. According to Donald Rumsfeld, more than 150,000,000 people are "confused" about the challenges facing the country, and want to give terrorists a pass and hope for the best.

Madness.

And you neither can, nor should, reason with that.