Just the few minutes I heard of Rumsfeld’s speech at the National Press Club today says a lot about this guy. After protestors yelling the Bush foreign policy is built on lies were removed, his response was basically we invaded Iraq so the Iraqi people could enjoy free press and rights like the protestors. Gee, Rumsy, I think the protestors were talking about the lies you and your boss were telling the American people before the invasion: WMD, Iraq’s “ties” to al-Queda and the red herring of Iraq somehow being tied to 9-11. If you keep saying the past was different than it actually was, I guess you can change it.
As usual, Rumsfeld uses his unique way of speaking to mask a lot of frightening things and what to me border on fabrications. One thing struck me, though. He said “regimes without checks and balances are prone to grave miscalculations.” Unfortunately, our political system lacked serious checks and balances because of the insistence after 9-11 and before invading Iraq that anything but agreeing with the President was unpatriotic. While people are slowly coming to their senses, grave miscalculations have already occurred: the Patriot Act and the invasion of Iraq. Yeah, just a couple little boo-boos there.
