Rumsfeld: Stay The Course

In his own words shortly before leaving office Donald Rumsfeld said that the military strategy in Iraq was not working well enough and required a "major readjustment". However, as he steps down from his Pentagon post he has found a new spirit of defiance, almost certainly brought about by his reaction to the Iraq Study Group report.

He now thinks the US has "every chance in the world of succeeding" in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We have every chance in the world of succeeding in both those countries, but only if we have the patience and only if we have the staying power."

Just when you think this administration has abandoned "Stay the course" they cling to it again as a welcome alternative to the obvious other substitute, "We failed."

Rumsfeld's farewell speech was, all in all, a master class in stubbornness; he's sticking to his script no matter how many piffling realities might contradict it.

For instance, we should forget that many believe that he was responsible for the policy changes that led to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay and that he may face war crimes charges in Germany over his actions:

I remember being stunned by the news of the abuse at Abu Ghraib. And then watching so many determined people spend so many months trying to figure out exactly how in the world something like that could have happened, and how to make it right. And then seeing how the department eventually demonstrated to the world how our democracy deals openly and decisively with such egregious wrongdoing.

Of course, he is actually referring to the prosecution of some minors much further down the chain. What would have impressed many of us would have been an examination of the changes of policy that allowed such abuse to take place. Policy changes that Rumsfeld himself signed off on.

However, he left his most bizarre and vague defence to the policy of Guanatanamo:

[The US] Established a camp and stood guard in Guantanamo over some of the world's most dangerous terrorists, while suffering grossly uninformed and irresponsible charges in the media from almost every quarter.

Let's leave aside the fact that most of the inmates turned out not to be, "some of the world's most dangerous terrorists". The "grossly uninformed and irresponsible charges" that most of us brought were that the US was abandoning Article Three of the Geneva Conventions and attempting to throw these men into the legal equivalent of a black hole where they would be beyond the reach of the American court system. These are not "grossly uninformed and irresponsible charges", they are actually the policy that the government went to court to try to defend.

So none of the charges were "uninformed" or "irresponsible". They were simply statements of fact from people who do not share Rumsfeld's mindset or agree with his version of what is legal or moral.

Rumsfeld showed the neo-con ability to fashion reality as they wish it to be rather than how it actually is with the statement:

But let there be no doubt, each of you and the future generations of Americans, as well as future generations of Iraqis and Afghans, will be able to look back on these past years as a time of enormous challenge, of historic consequence and of solid accomplishment.

The "solid accomplishment" of the fractured Iraqi state? The "solid accomplishment" of Afghanistan facing a resurgent Taliban?

At times the neo-con mindset is a thing of wonder. They literally don't give a hoot for reality, preferring to believe that they create reality whilst the rest of us look on.

And, despite all the evidence to the contrary, Rumsfeld is bowing out of office refusing to ever concede that this ain't so.

Rumsfeld's farewell speech was dizzying, not for it's ability to surprise - for it had none- but for the sheer bloody minded way he clings to a long disproven map of reality. Even now, he refuses to accept that anything he did might have been wrong. Even now he refuses to concede that Iraq is lost. Even now, he sees Abu Ghraib as an example of how the US treat "a few rotten apples" in the military, rather than an indictment of his own scandalous policies.

There can be no surprise that he is leaving the Pentagon, but there must surely be a feeling of genuine bewilderment that this man was allowed to remain in his position for so long.

Rumsfeld's message as he leaves is forget the ISG, ignore it's findings, stay the course.

Even when defeated the neo-cons don't stop believing that they are right and the rest of us are wrong.

Click title for Rumsfeld's farewell speech.

tag: "Stay the course", Donald Rumsfeld, Iraq war, US foreign policy, James T Baker, Bush, Baker report