1115.org

Donald Rumsfeld is at it again. Adding insult to injury by first taking an unpopular decision, and then twisting the knife in the wound by crowning the incident with some totally unnecessary and totally ludicrous lies.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Saturday praised the work of an Army brigade whose one-year tour in Iraq was extended just as they prepared to return home, and said he saw no reason for the soldiers or their families to be angry at him.

…”These people are all volunteers. They all signed up. They all are there doing what they’re doing because they want to do it. They’re proud of what they do. They do it very, very well.”

If they’re all there doing what they want to be doing, why unilaterally order their tour of duty extended? Why not ask for volunteers and let them all volunteer? That way the soldiers can feel really good about doing their duty, and the Army will have a genuine PR coup. It would actually be good news coming out of Iraq for the Republicans, news they could milk for some serious political capital.

Very simply put, the question is: is Rumsfeld delusional or is he just a liar?

A delusional Rumsfeld would call for volunteers, and be genuinely puzzled at the response. We would probably be treated to the full array of “Goodness gracious me!” and “Oh gosh!”

A liar would do exactly what Rumsfeld did. That, of course, doesn’t prove that Rumsfeld is a liar. At best it proves that he sometimes acts exactly like a liar would act. But we have more evidence.

The Pentagon chief was meeting privately later Saturday with 172nd Stryker Brigade families at Fort Wainwright, the unit’s home base. Rumsfeld’s aides said they expected as many as 600 people to attend and to have a chance to ask questions.

Reporters who traveled with Rumsfeld from Washington, D.C., were to be excluded from the session.

Asked why reporters would not be permitted to cover the event, Rumsfeld at first replied, “I don’t have any idea. I haven’t addressed the subject.” Later he said he makes it a practice to make all family meetings private.

He used to be a much better liar than that. “I don’t have any idea” followed in short order by “That’s always been my policy” is just plain sloppy. Maybe all the rumors that Bush is shopping for a replacement for him are getting to him?

Let’s put the “liar or delusional” question aside for just a moment, and let’s talk about stupid. Is this man now so stupid that he thinks if reporters are excluded from that meeting, the families who are pissed off as hell about the tour of duty being extended will say to themselves: “Oh, how I wish some reporters were there to hear and report our reaction, our feelings! I guess there’s no way to have our feelings aired in the media now. Shucks!” And presumably he thinks reporters will say to each other: “We almost had a good story there. Too bad there’s no way to get the story now, huh?”

Unfortunately the gods who are tasked with tormenting defense secretaries cooked this up instead:

A newly formed Alaska chapter of the Military Families Speak Out group issued a statement in Fairbanks saying it would make a public call for the Bush administration to bring home the 172nd and all other U.S. troops. It quoted Jennifer Davis of Anchorage, whose husband is a member of the 172nd.

“I am totally frustrated, disappointed and heart broken,” she said in the statement. “Just when I thought we were going to be able to resume a ‘normal’ life and when I thought the nightmare was over, the nightmare was extended.”

Mrs. Davis is clearly not for extending the tour of duty. One might go so far as to say she is against it. I wonder what that makes her. An al Qaeda sympathizer? A cutter-and-runner? A closet Saddamite? A traitor certainly, regardless of the exact label that deserves to be attached to her. Selfish to the core, too, the way she’s putting her personal happiness before her husband’s duty to complete our mission in Iraq. (What’s the exact label attached to that these days? Have we settled yet on “slowing down the inevitable descent into civil war”?)

Let the record show that I hereby volunteer to do my bit in the fight against whatever it is we’re claiming today that we’re fighting for. I’m willing to speak to women like Jennifer Davis on behalf of the U.S. Army. Here’s my audition tape, if you will: “Lady, what the hell are you grumbling about? Your husband’s in the military, okay? That means Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld own his ass. You are only what is known as a residual claimant (Sorry! That financial economics background will rear its ugly head from time to time.). Whatever body parts remain when they decide they’re done with him will be returned to you. We do all hope and pray, of course, that they’re all still attached to each other, and in some reasonable semblance of working order. If not, a grateful nation will certainly extend its thanks. And if it comes to that, for Gods’ sake follow the unwritten rules. Remember that your duty is to cry a little, look very brave and accept the folded flag as if it’s the most precious thing in your world. And remember to tell your kids that their father died in a noble cause. Even if no one can tell you what it is, they can all certify that it is very noble indeed. And, oh yes, one last thing: if you had dutifully supported the war and the deployment and the redeployment (and the re-redeployment, if applicable) maybe your husband wouldn’t have been taken from you. But you’ll have a long time to think that one over, a long long time.”

And here’s my parting shot. The AP headline for this story reads “Rumsfeld praises troops doing extra duty”. How far away are we from reading “Rumsfeld praises soldiers for following orders”?

*** Update, 6:15 am on August 27 ***
This little incident is starting to exemplify perfectly why the Iraq war has turned out to be such a shambles. Rumsfeld insisted on making major decisions, and the man simply has very poor judgment. And either he solicits and accepts no advice, or if he does, then his advisors have equally poor judgment. Here’s how his private session with 172nd Stryker Brigade families went down:

The wives of soldiers whose duty in Iraq was extended to add troop strength to Baghdad peppered U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with tough questions, some that he could not answer, at a closed-door meeting in Alaska on Saturday.

And remember how it was off-limits to reporters? Well:

Rumsfeld’s meeting with family members was closed to the press, unlike other large events, such as “town hall” sessions with troops. But some wives taped the event and one shared the recording with reporters.

When he can so easily be checkmated by angry wives of soldiers, is it any surprise that he’s totally out of his depth running the Iraq war?

Doesn’t running a war successfully require some minimal ability to look ahead and anticipate how the other side may react to decisions you take? Doesn’t it require that you prepare in advance for those reactions, that you take steps to ensure they are ineffective? Isn’t that what is called a plan?