The wit and wisdom of Donald Rumsfeld. A look back at last throes.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

I held on to this summary of Rumsfeld's blatant lying and twisting of facts, as well as his wacky rationalizations from almost a year ago.

Here are some nuggets from this great read at American Progress:

First, his "deny everything and revise history approach:

On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace noted that Rumsfeld, from before the start of the Iraq war, has offered a rosy picture about how the conflict would turn out, leaving most Americans unprepared for the violence that has resulted. Rumsfeld responded to the criticism by saying: "That's false ... I have been very balanced and measured."

Followed by his going to the dictionary to explain what "last throes" and "guerrilla warfare" really mean:

On Fox, Rumsfeld said, "Last throes could be a violent last throe, just as well as a placid or calm last throe. Look it up in the dictionary."

On NBC, he said,"The last throes could be violence, as you well know from a dictionary standpoint." And on ABC, he told host George Stephanopoulos to "look it up."

..... such as when he tried to twist General Abizaid's assertion that Iraq had become a guerrilla war (Rumsfeld: "I have since gone to the dictionary")

.....or when he defended his characterization of the war on terror as a long, hard "slog" (Rumsfeld: "It's not only the Oxford Dictionary's preferred definition, it's mine")

And, the icing on the cake...Rumsfeld lost the yellow legal pad on which he listed, for gwb, the possible pitfalls of going into Iraq.
Well, except, possibly, for one little item which didn't seem to make the list.:shrug:

"I presented the president a list of about 15 things that could go terribly, terribly wrong before the war started: the fact that the oil fields could have been set aflame like they were in Kuwait, the fact that we could have had mass refugees and dislocations and it didn't happen, the bridges could have blown up, there could have been a Fortress Baghdad with a moat around it with oil in it and people fighting to the death.… So a great many of the bad things that could have happened did not happen." Rumsfeld can't recall, however, if he told President Bush that there might be an "robust insurgency": "I don't remember if that was on there," Rumsfeld told Tim Russert.

Fortress Baghdad with a moat around it with oil in it? You just can't make this stuff up. MKJ

link to the terrific article:
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=851941