A Tale of Two Incompetents (Bush and Rumsfeld)

""Yes, sir. Our report validated everything you told us — that Franks issued the orders to discard the original twelve-to-eighteen-month occupation deployment, that the forces were drawing down, that we were walking away from the mission, and that everybody knew about it. And let me tell you, the Secretary did not like that one bit. After we went in to brief him, he just shut us down. 'This is not going anywhere,' he said. 'Oh, and by the way, leave all the copies right here and don't talk to anybody about it.'"

"You mean he embargoed all the copies of the report?" I asked.

"Yes, sir, he did." "  Time

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This is the characteristic Rumsfeld style; cruel, manipulative, unconcerned with the truth, eager to escape responsibility for failure.  He knows these generals are completely self-serving careerists and that they can be made to do anything that is desired by the implied or direct promise of reward or the threat of punishment.  These modern generals have been cultivatd like plants to have the reactions of people on the way up in the business world where the war of "all against all" is the underlying psychological paragdigm.  The inappropriateness of this mind set in the military world where cooperation and self sacrifice are called for completely escapes Rumsfeld.  For the blind, selfish narrowmindedness that leads to that fatal incomprehension, Rumsfeld must be judged incompetent.  pl

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1736831-3,00.html

""What's probably counterintuitive to you is that this has been a great experience for our family. I've lived in the White House now for seven and a half years, and the furniture is interesting but it's like a museum," he said, the crowd laughing.

"And there's love in that White House, thanks to a good wife," Mr. Bush said of first lady Laura Bush, as the crowd applauded. "She's great ... which is one of the reasons this has been a fabulous experience.""  Washtimes

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It is a far, far better place that he goes to... and the sooner the better.  He says he might be a talk show host?  Yes.  He can do an afternoon radio show from Crawford, something akin to the radio fandango in "Tuna, Texas."  The grotesque buffoonery of this man offends the eye and the soul.  "A fabulous experience?"  History will judge him.  A true incompetent.  pl

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080503/NATION/120439342/1001

Comments

[Arun]

We reelected him. History will not be kind to us either.

[radiofreewill]

According to Gen. Sanchez, before Rumsfeld 'reviews' with him the 2 page "Who told CENTCOM to leave?" Memo, this exchange occurs:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1736831-1,00.html

"Ric, I wanted to tell you that I'm interested in giving you some options for follow-on employment as a civilian in the Department of Defense." Rumsfeld then talked about a possibility with either the Africa Center for Strategic Studies and the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies. There was a director they were thinking of moving to make room for me, he explained.

"Well, I'll consider that, sir, but I'm not making any commitments. I have some other opportunities I need to explore."

---

Is there Any Other Way to interpret that conversation except as Rumsfeld Offering a Quid Pro Quo to collude on a Cover Story?

Hat Tip to Gen. Sanchez for meeting the Moral Weakness of the Powerful with the Integrity of a Principled Leader - Huzza!

Like my father told me when I was growing up - "No one can take your Integrity away. Only you can give it away."

[JohnH]

A true incompetent?

When you preside over the deaths of a million people and squander a few $Trillion, it's more than incompetent.

Incompetence is defensible. Knowingly criminal behavior, though incompetent, is not.

[LJ]

My recollection is that Bush used the same technique in an TV interview in which he expressed some bewilderment about how the dissolution of the Iraqi happened. The policy was to not do this but somehow it happened anyway. No follow-up question.

[Buzz Meeks]

A great experience for his family. That must make four thousand families across the country feel grateful they could supply the First S---s with an awesome time for the last seven and a half years.

I hope RICO proceedings are started January 21, 2009 against anyone who put time in with these traitors.

Buzz Meeks

[Will]

i wish i knew what he was talking about

"There's not a doubt in my mind that they all embraced this decision to some degree. And if it had not been for the moral courage of Gen. John Abizaid to stand up to them all and reverse Franks's troop drawdown order, there's no telling how much more damage would have been done.

In the meantime, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars were unnecessarily spent, and worse yet, too many of our most precious military resource, our American soldiers, were unnecessarily wounded, maimed, and killed as a result. In my mind, this action by the Bush administration amounts to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty. "

[arbogast]

Well, the quote from A Tale of Two Cities is slightly misplaced, simply because the notion of sacrifice or goodness is foreign to Bush, but Dickens would have had a field day with him. He is a Dickens character to his hair roots.

The difference between Bush and Nixon is that Nixon was a moderately intelligent man. Bush is a moron. He is now the most unpopular and loathed President in history, which just shows that P.T. Barnum was not always right.

[Will]

ok, i get it, CENTCOM staff pulled out and left Sanchez untrained in COIN and strategy and without benefit of the preplanning in charge. But, of course, Wolfwitz, then No. 2 at the Pentagon had said they never anticipated that Saddam had preplanned a muqqawammah or intifida, an insurgency- duh. But they were all willing to send over Jefferies from Gitmo to show him how to do Abu Ghraib.

[basil_jelly]

I never thought I could look back on Nixon's 'Checker's speech" and wish we could have someone that honest again. But that time has come.

[Cold War Zoomie]

Sanchez is just ticked off about not getting promoted and wants to sell his book. Bush and Rummy did a great job.

See how easy that is!

Back to yard work. Ugh.

[Montag]

I hope we can do better than history to judge him, since Bush loses his legal immunity at 12:01 PM on Jan. 20, 2009. Democratic Underground had a good take on some bizarre comments he made to soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush is #1 of their Top 10 Conservative Idiots:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/top10/329

Perhaps Shakespeare beat us all to it. In Richard III, Act I, Scene III, he has Richard say:

"I cannot tell: the world is grown so bad,
That wrens may prey where eagles dare not perch:
Since every Jack became a gentleman,
There's many a gentle person made a Jack."

[frogspawn]

I saw this yesterday (Friday) morning, and the only two places I've seen it referred to since are here and Firedoglake. This should be front-paged everywhere.

"The grotesque buffoonery of this man offends the eye and the soul."

The Bush legacy in a nutshell- thank you, Col.

[taters]

Thank you for a most excellent read, Col. Lang. You truly are a poet, sir.

[jon]

My first thought was that all of this can be sorted out at the Hague. But a mature country should be able to deal with problems of its own making.

As part of the security precautions for Bush after he leaves office, I'f like to suggest a double row of 12' high cyclone fence topped with concertina wire encircling Crawford. And no gate.

Rummy might just have to stand at his desk a bit longer. naked, drugged, with a sack on his head, speed metal and the Teletubbies song blaring, while it's freezing/boiling, and his arms chained up to the sprinkler pipe behind him. I'm pretty sure that doesn't approach the pain of organ failure or death. Besides, it's not like I want him to suffer. He should just think a little about his actions, and maybe receive a little encouragement to sharpen up his famous recollection.

The comparison of quotes is poignant. They're an ideal representation of mendacity. Corrupt, incompetent hypocrites, the whole lot.

Maybe they can empty bedpans at the VA, and help amputees with their rehab. But that might let them become objects of pity, and that would be wrong.

[par4]

A lot worse than just incompetence. Psychopathy and criminal negligence better describes this disaster of a President.

[Forrest]

"The grotesque buffoonery of this man offends the eye and the soul."

Despite all the gnashing of teeth and spilling of ink during the time Bush has been in office, nothing I've seen yet in print encapsulates more truthfully or more expressively the fundamental essence of both him and his presidency. Well said indeed!

[Neil Richardson]

Dear COL Lang,

Perhaps the Army should waive the current age limit and ask Bush if he wants to enlist. He would have a much better chance than a 19 year old kid who won't have a Secret Service detail to cover his rear.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1333111120080313?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews

Bush heard tales of all-night tea drinking sessions to coax local residents into cooperating, and of tribesmen crossing mountains to attend government meetings seen as building blocks for the country's democracy-in-the-making.
"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."
"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

[alaric410]

"Quo usque tandem abutere, Georgius, patentia nostra?" My apologies to Cicero, but this is nothing but treason. Keep up the good work Colonel.

[William R. Cumming]

The Republicans got what they wished for namely son of Bush. Now let's measure both the father and son legacy in the middle-east together. That legacy needs full analysis from January 20, 1989 to January 20, 2009. Why encompass the Clinton era between the Bushs because a remarkably large number of Clinton policies were Bush policies. If there is a published open source analysis demonstrating that Clinton foreign policy in the middle-east differed significantly from the bookend Bush Presidents please enlighten me. Both Bush and Clinton families are going down in history together whatever the 2008 outcome. A remarkable 20 year frittering away of American soft and hard power. A bipartisan and disasterous foreign policy for two decades in the middle-east.

[Mark K Logan]

Arbogast,
I wonder what Dickens might have done with the aspect of Rumsfeld trying to get his father fired as
CIA director. The father watching his own son allow the man to come to power,
(to discredit his his own judgment?) and then suffer mightily from the the mans incompetence and arrogance.

[Publius]

Although it's my sense that Ricardo Sanchez is yet another in a long line of general officers who can't be trusted, I actually find him credible in this story about Rumsfeld. I don't think he's imaginative enough to make it up, even in the current extreme CYA mode, where he is desperately seeking people to blame to divert us from his own shortcomings.

But there is one area where I don't believe Sanchez. And that's where he professes surprise at the fact that there was a Phase IV plan, the one he's now saying Franks, Rumsfeld, et al, pitched over the side, thus leaving him holding the bag. No way anyone should ever believe that. Sanchez insults our intelligence by asking that we believe it. Sanchez's whole schtick is being the minority general who wasn't brought into the big picture by the bigots in charge. This is a three-star general talking.

Sanchez has to profess ignorance of Phase IV planning to cover up the fact that he neglected to ask a lot of hard questions—along with demanding resources—at the time. He won't sell many books if his role as a unquestioning yes-man for Bremer and the rest is confirmed. Just remember, this latter-day rebel was a three-star-general who apparently never asked any questions. Three-star-generals have clout, no matter who they are. Sanchez chose not to use it. He is a coconspirator.

Rumsfeld: It's hard to escape the impression that he's suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's. Don't laugh. Think of Reagan's last years.

Bush? I like the term "grotesque buffoonery" very much. I once thought he was just that, along with being an oafish frat boy who cares nothing about himself. But I always thought there was some actual intelligence there. Now I see this tra-la-la interview, where I learn that being a president's son is more difficult than being president, and where he and his family have really enjoyed their time in the White House, and I see where the term "moron" is in favor these days. ISTM this man is either indeed either a moron or he's clinically insane.

[Tim]

Guys and Girls, The grotesque buffoon was re-elected. Any comment?

[rjj]

The buffoon has one important function, and he performs it well: he is an animus magnet.

It never fails, though few suppose he got up one morning and, after his PB&J, said:

"Say, Dicktat,** I was just thinking your old pal Rummy would make an awesome Defense Secretary."

** or "Sir" [he might not use pet names with the Lord Protector.]

[Anon]

You speak truth. Please keep doing so.

[Bobo]

I look forward to reading Sanchez's book in detail. Men with great burdens, on their shoulders, tend to throw their elbows wildly.

"Action without Vision is a Nightmare" a quote by Sanchez of a Japanese proverb is an indication of his eloquence and foresight.

Rummy was an excellent businessman who took it to extremes and always had a fall guy in line when things just didn't go right. Now if Gates was DS, a man with some vision, and Rummy Asst. DS running the business end that would be a team.

As to the last paragraph, I do not think it could be said better, thus no comment on my part.