Don Rumsfeld...
Posted on 04/04/2011 6:28:24 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
SPIEGEL: Mister Secretary, you are famous for your "Rumsfeld rules." Do you happen to have a rule that gives advice on foreign invasions?
Rumsfeld: I do. When you begin an invasion, a rule is "the mission should determine the coalition, not the other way around." You should not first assemble a coalition with many different views and then try to determine the mission. That leads to a lack of clarity as to the mission.
SPIEGEL: Is that the case with the current NATO invasion in Libya?
Rumsfeld: I think you can make that case. The United States did not articulate, to my knowledge, a clear mission. We started putting together a coalition, and then the coalition fashioned the mission. The coalition members cite humanitarian concerns, but as long as there is ambiguity about whether Gadhafi must stay or leave, there will be still more people killed.
SPIEGEL: US surveys show that support for the Libya invasion is low. Obama has transferred command to NATO. Is the alliance capable of handling it?
Rumsfeld: Time will tell. NATO members vary dramatically in their capability and in their political steadfastness.
SPIEGEL: Nevertheless, the US is now part of a broad coalition, a stark difference to the Iraq invasion that you were also responsible for.
Rumsfeld: That is not the case. Obama has 15 countries in the current Libya coalition. President Bush put together nearly 50 countries for the Afghan coalition, 40 countries for the Iraqi coalition, more than 90 countries for the Proliferation Security Initiative and over 90 countries in the Global War on Terror, and yet as your question suggested, he was called a "unilateralist."
SPIEGEL: As Secretary of Defense in the Bush administration, you disparaged troublesome allies like Germany and France as "Old Europe."
Rumsfeld: I do not regret that comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
He effortlessly makes fools of interviewers attempting to set traps, and he is very nondefensive.
Self-important sucknuts Michael Beschloss asked him what history would say about him twenty years from now. Rummy said "In twenty years I will be 98 years old, and I couldn't care less what you say about me." End of interview.
I’m still a Rummy fan. He’s a straight shooter.
Bring back Rumsfeld!
John Wayne tough.
He was always a class act. Still is!
Served his country well and ably for all these years.
Thank you, sir, for your service to America and the free world.
Would that you were still working for us.
Gates is such an embarrassment.
If I was capable of having a ‘man-crush’, it would be Rumsfeld.
Rumsfield should have been Secretary of WAR.
SPIEGEL: During his address to the American people on Libya at the end of March, Obama pointed to the Iraq war. He said that regime change there took eight years, cost thousands of American and Iraqi lives as well as nearly a trillion dollars, and that is something the US cannot afford to repeat. Looking back, was the Iraq invasion too costly?
Rumsfeld: History will make that judgment. It is hard to put a price on some things. What is the value of having prevented nuclear weapons from getting into the hands of a dictator like Saddam Hussein — or of Gadhafi, who was convinced to give up his nuclear program a few years ago because he did not want to end up like Saddam? What is the value of having millions of people in Iraq not having a repressive regime? What is the value of having the Iraqi regime not shooting at UK and US aircraft almost every day? What is the value of the Iraqis having a free press? What is the value of the foreign minister of Iraq going to Paris, calling for an end of the Gadhafi regime and citing Iraq as a model, as an example, that in fact a freer political system can exist in that part of the world? If there are people who yearn for the days when Saddam Hussein was in power, then I am not among them.
I just put his book on hold at the library. If it’s good, I’ll buy a copy for my husband. OOTOH, I’ll probably buy a copy just to make a liberal cry.
Oops, OOTOH=OTOH. That’s it, I’m cutting off the wine for the night ;)
Nation building in the Ummah is worse than wishful thinking. Look at Turkey, it's devolving into it's former Islamic self. Sure, Rummy was always quick with words, but this belies his support of the one worlders who will spend our savings for their unstated goals.
If he came to my area for a book signing, I'd go and stand in line to have him sign it.
Don Rumsfeld...
I’m reading his autobiography now, Known and Unknown, and highly recommend it! It’s very insightful and engaging. It’s similar to GWB’s book in it’s frankness (about wrong decisions) but much more personal and deeper. Donald Rumsfeld is an impressive leader and I once worked for him as a DoD employee. I hated the way he was treated by the media, but by then I already hated our media, so what else is new.
I probably would too! Although my area is getting ready to change from Arkansas to Ohio in the next couple of months...wherever I am, I would do it ;)
I’m still a Rumsfeld fan, too. All the way.
Good luck with your moving. I know how tough it can be...
Thanks! I’m a veteran mover. Moved to San Diego when I married dh (Navy man), then to Puerto Rico, then Louisiana, then after he was discharged, Oklahoma, Indiana, and now Arkansas. I told him we have to stay put until the oldest graduates high school once we get to Ohio (he’s already there and I’m here with the 4 kids until the end of the school year) She is graduating 6th grade (Catholic school) next month, so that makes us stay put for at least the next six years. We’ll be 4-5.5 hours from his parents and mine ( who all reside in Indiana—my home state), respectively, compared to the 12+ hours we are now.
Of course, our biggest obstacle now is selling this blasted house, which in a good economy would go in a heartbeat given its location and price, and the reality is almost 6 months on the market with no offers. We just dropped our price last week—we can still recoup our down payment if we sell near this price. Our realtor is trying hard, but it’s hard to sell when no one’s buying.
We already have a place picked out in Ohio (2 acres and 2200 square feet) where the sellers are willing to rent to us until we can buy, and fortunately, we could swing rent and a mortgage, but it would mean tightening our belts. With four kids, we need a little loosening room in that belt, LOL.
I had the pleasure of meeting Secretary Rumsfeld at a recent political gathering in Beverly Hills. Moderator David Horowitz expressed it beautifully: “I wish you were 20 years younger so you could serve the next administration.”
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