1115.org

On Sunday, in my naivete, I asked: “is Rumsfeld delusional or is he just a liar?”

Today, older and wiser, I ask myself how I could ever have been so foolish. What on earth possessed me to think it had to be either-or?

On Sunday, I argued (convincingly, I hope) that the man is an arrogant and incorrigible liar. On Monday, he revealed himself also to be arrogantly and doggedly delusional:

U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned potential adversaries on Monday that the United States remained capable of responding to military threats at home and abroad, despite its troop commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We are capable of dealing with other problems were they to occur,” he told troops at an airfield in the Nevada desert.
[...]
More than three years into the Iraq war, the military is showing signs of stress. The Army and Marine Corps, in particular, must spend tens of billions of dollars to replace and repair equipment. Army officials have said the combat readiness of many units and their ability to take on new missions have suffered.

Army officials, mind you. Not just demented left-wing bloggers who hate our military. (Maybe heads will roll, in the usual discreet, Rumsfeldian way?)

Rumsfeld, however, said the U.S. military has already shown its ability to respond to new missions. He noted the military’s evacuation of some 15,000 people from Lebanon during the war between Israel and Hizbollah as well as its role in responding to natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina last year.

We are barely managing to rustle up the bare minimum of troops we need in Iraq (by extending deployments, following “stop-loss” policies, dropping recruiting standards) and the man claims we are ready and able to mount another military campaign if we choose need to. Against Iran, for example.

Of course, in seeking to interpret the remarks of Donald “Through his teeth” Rumsfeld (or should that be Donald “Pink elephants” Rumsfeld?), one has to bear in mind that it all depends on the definition of capable. It is just as well if we remind ourselves that in his universe we’re handling the Iraq war more than capably:

“The important question is not whether we can win. Of course we can win. We won’t lose a single battle,” he said. “But do we have the will?”

We’re not only going to win the danged war, we’re going to win every. single. battle. Gosh! He just hit that out of the park, didn’t he?

*** Update, 1:20 pm August 30 ***

Has the delusional liar finally started to go stark raving nuts? Here’s Donald “Goebbels” Rumsfeld at the American Legion convention in Salt Lake City:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared critics of the Bush administration to those who sought to appease the Nazis before World War II, warning Tuesday that the United States is confronting “a new type of fascism.”
[...]
He continued: “Can we truly afford to believe that, somehow or some way, vicious extremists could be appeased?”

The critics of the Bush administration have two main charges relating to our wars-in-progress.

One, things are going to hell in a handbasket in Iraq, and we have no idea how to slow down the process, let alone reverse it. Things are not improving, we are not winning. There is no hope of things improving, there is no strategy that holds out any hope of winning. We are sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire. Staying the course isn’t going to solve any of the above.

Two, the war on Iraq has not only distracted attention and resources from the war we should really have been fighting, the war on terrorism, it has made the terrorists stronger (and continues to do so). Let’s find a way to bring the Iraq misadventure to an end, so that we can re-focus our efforts on fighting terrorism.

It takes a pretty seriously addled brain to confuse these criticisms with appeasement of terrorists.

But Rumsfeld wasn’t done displaying his new stark-raving persona:

Nevertheless, Rumsfeld aggressively defended the war and his leadership of it in speeches to the American Legion on Tuesday, the Veterans of Foreign Wars a day earlier and in other meetings with service members this week.

In each speech, Rumsfeld has acknowledged the reality of debate in a free society. But he has attacked the news media, charging that reports have been manipulated by Iraqi insurgents or al-Qaida terrorists.

Our news media are controlled by Muqtada al-Sadr and Osama bin Laden? They manipulate news reports at will?

Obviously, Mr. Rumsfeld is not well. It would be cruel to comment on this statement. I sincerely apologize for all my past cruelties. I am not arrogant enough to petition the Lord with prayer, but I do wish Mr. Rumsfeld well, whether or not he ever recovers.