Rumsfeld Spins, We Pay

Here are four headlines in today's Washington Post:

"Tanker Inquiry Finds Rumsfeld's Attention Was Elsewhere"
This is the largest defense procurement scandal in recent decades.... when Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was asked in April of 2005 to raise his hand and swear to tell the truth about this procurement, he whined to investigators, "I find it strange," on the grounds that as a government official "the laws apply to me" anyway.

Ah yes, the laws. Funny things. They show up at the most inconvenient times.

In this Rumsfeld interview he cited poor memory, loose office procedures and distraction with the wars to explain why he was unsure how his DOD squandered nearly $30 billion.

What was the $30 billion supposed to buy? An unneeded, procurement-violations tanker purchased from Boeing. Rumsfeld in this just-disclosed interview made it clear.... "he does wars, not defense procurement."

His "focus" was on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. So how did that work out?

"Two Missing U.S. Soldiers Found Dead"
The two missing young U.S. soldiers bodies have been found. "The head of operations at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, said the Soldiers had been 'barbarically' killed and that there were traces of torture on their bodies." This is but a part of the bloody price we are paying for the Rumsfeld-focused, Cheney-Bush mandated war.

But, watch for the far Right rewriting of history. Liberal-hating Michael Savage said on his radio broadcast last night that the reason we didn't have enough troops in Iraq was because the evil liberals in Congress stayed Bush's hand. The truth.... Rumsfeld wouldn't listen to his own generals who wanted more "boots on the ground."

"Japan Plans to Bring Troops Home as Iraqis Take Over"
True, it is really just symbolic since Japan has just 550 troops in Iraq. But that is also what makes it so important. Symbolically, one of our staunch allies, Japan, is saying "enough." This newly dubbed "humanitarian war of liberation" has an odor... remember we asked our allies to join us because of Iraq's WMD. Now the reasons for the war are being repackaged, and Rumsfeld is doing the marketing. Japan wants out.

"In Tribal Pakistan, a Tide of Militancy"
This article is sobering. "A tide of Islamic militancy is spreading across" the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan that hugs the Afghan border. Some observers say the U.S. and Pakistan's heavy-handed military tactics have alienated the populace and won new supporters for the Taliban movement across the border in Afghanistan. This quote from a Pakistani English teacher: "U.S. forces were 'savages and barbarians' while the Taliban were 'religious scholars and sincere people.'"

Note to Rumsfeld: You can't win a war unless you win the hearts and minds of the people.

Now we, the voting U.S. citizens, need to "focus" on ridding ourselves of this Rumsfeld-Cheney-Bush cabal and their ilk.