Look Who’s Back – It’s Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Rumsfeld is back! He’s just published a memoir (wait until you get a load of the title). In it, he blames everyone else for the problems in the Iraq War. I’m sure you’re very surprised by this.

Sounding characteristically tough and defiant in the 800-page autobiography “Known and Unknown,” Rumsfeld remains largely unapologetic about his overall handling of the Iraq conflict and concludes that the war has been worth the costs. Had the government of Saddam Hussein remained in power, he says, the Middle East would be “far more perilous than it is today.”

Addressing charges that he failed to provide enough troops for the war, he allows that, “In retrospect, there may have been times when more troops could have helped.” But he insists that if senior military officers had reservations about the size of the invading force, they never informed him. And as the conflict wore on, he says, U.S. commanders, even when pressed repeatedly for their views, did not ask him for more troops or disagree with the strategy.

See, Donald Rumsfeld is the victim here, of everyone else’s incompetence. Or as they say in the words of Donald Rumsfeld, you got to war with the generals you have.

Rumsfeld blames L. Paul Bremer III, who led the first year of occupation, for pursuing a grandiose plan more in line with State’s vision than the Pentagon’s. Although Bremer has said he kept Pentagon officials fully informed, Rumsfeld, who was nominally Bremer’s boss, now describes himself as slow to recognize Bremer’s intentions.

Rumsfeld asserts that Bush exacerbated matters by allowing confusion in the chain of command and enabling Bremer to “pick and choose” which senior Washington officials to deal with. Rumsfeld quotes a memo he wrote to himself when Bremer’s appointment was announced in May 2003, quietly criticizing Bush for having had lunch alone with the new envoy. “Shouldn’t have done so,” the memo said. The president “linked him to the White House instead of to” the Pentagon or State Department.

In Rumsfeld’s tale, he’s surrounded by incompetents like George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Paul Bremer. (Hey, I agree with him!). I’m sure the war would have turned out just peachy if only they had let Rumsfeld do things his way.

It’s pretty interesting to watch the Bush legacy project in action. So far we haven’t learned anything new yet but we’re seeing the factions double down on their bad decisions.