Heh. That's rich coming from him. He and Wolfotwits having a discussion on the merits of principle is scary to contemplate. What a yo-yo...
p. 203 "The coup option (for removing Saddam Hussein) would thus require either a huge leap of faith--or a complete abandonment of principles."
A "huge leap of faith"?? In contrast to the idea that Chalabi would run Iraq, the Iraqi military and police would secure the country, and Iraqi itself would pay for reconstruction?
Last edited by SteveMetz; 04-16-2008 at 01:37 PM.
"...a complete abandonment of principles."
Heh. That's rich coming from him. He and Wolfotwits having a discussion on the merits of principle is scary to contemplate. What a yo-yo...
Drum Rolls, Bugles Blare, Rumsfeld's Memoirs
Man I cannot wait to get my copy....Rumsfeld to Write His Memoirs
Donald H. Rumsfeld, who resigned as secretary of defense in late 2006, will write his memoirs for the Sentinel imprint of Penguin Group USA. Mr. Rumsfeld, 75, will cover not only his years in the Bush administration but also his experiences with Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford and Ronald Reagan; his work in the private sector; and his early life.
After WWII, the Center for Military History made its name for the next 4 plus decades with the Green Book series.
What are we going to call this peculiar group of memoirs emerging (dripping? spewing?) from the icons of the current administration? The Dream Books?
We have so far
George Tenet's "They Were Mean to Me"
Bremer's "I was only a proconsul so don't blame me"
Feith's "Damn the State Department, You guys go with Ahmed (Chalabi)"
Franks "COIN? Who needs a coin?I am outta here"
Who will be next?
Powelll--naw he did his 10 years ago and the ending was better
Cheney--no way
Conde Rice--possibly
Wolfowitz--possibly if he can get the World Bank to front the advance
Tom
somewhere in all this, there has to be...
...a "Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith walk into a bar.." joke.
Rex, Rex, Rex <shaking his head>..... When did the unholy trinity ever walk anywhere when they could send their aids to do it insteadOriginally Posted by Rex Brynen
?
Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
Senior Research Fellow,
The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
Carleton University
http://marctyrrell.com/
Naw...it's more like they wanted to go to the bar, but DoS changed the maps on them so they couldn't find it...and they didn't have the funds available to hire new aides to go find it for them, so they ended up staying home and writing OpEd pieces about how DoS bungled the map-making business.Rex, Rex, Rex <shaking his head>..... When did the unholy trinity ever walk anywhere when they could send their aids to do it instead
"On the plains and mountains of the American West, the United States Army had once learned everything there was to learn about hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare."
T.R. Fehrenbach This Kind of War
Either that or they never learned how to read maps, couldn't figure out google.maps and no longer had access to SOF guidanceNaw...it's more like they wanted to go to the bar, but DoS changed the maps on them so they couldn't find it...and they didn't have the funds available to hire new aides to go find it for them, so they ended up staying home and writing OpEd pieces about how DoS bungled the map-making business.
Of course, this type of scenario is always possible....
***********
(tape recorded conversation from White House logs - 14/2/05)
Cheney: Gentlemen, the time has come to instigate a special investigation into possible problems we may have at the Pentagon. Of course, you know what I am referring to - alleged incidents of merry making, at our expense, in Sines. I think Donald should take the lead on this one since we obviously have to protect the President from any possible links.
Rumsfeld: Shock and Awe, Shock and Awe - that's the way to do it! Look, let's send in a small, specialized team to take down the possible insurgents operating there; nothing too large or out of proportion, say a Battalion of Armor after a saturation bombing strike.
Wolfowitz: Excellent idea, Sir! Totally in agreement! Couldn't have put it better myself! After all, we all know what sort of disreputable, un-American activity goes on at that place!
Feith: I think the ideological implications are clear. Obviously our "colleagues" (said in a voice dripping venom) at State have been conspiring with various un-American forces trying to destroy the virtue of our military. Still, Sir, are you absolutely certain that an air strike should be the start of it? (spoken as he carefully terms on a small digital audio recorder).
Rumsfeld: Well, Dunlop keeps saying that we can use them in this type of situation.... I mean, we paid for it, so we might as well use it, right?
Wolfowitz: Totally agree, Sir!
Cheney: Now, gentlemen, I don't need, or want, to know any of the details on this operation. But I will point out that, back when I was in private industry, this type of operation would usually be outsourced. I can recommend a couple of contacts from back in the day if you would like...
Wolfowitz: Fantastic idea, Sir!
Rumsefld: Hmmm, that might be the best way to go, despite what George keeps saying...
Feith: Hey, didn't State hire some people from Blackwater? Could we, like, maybe find out who they got and give them a secondary contract - through State of course?
Cheney (to Rumsfeld): Here's the contact names.
Rumsfeld: Right, thank you Sir. Gentlemen, let's go.
****
AP 17/2/05
Local DC bar site of Old West style gun fight
In the "strange but true" category, last night, local DC bar Sines was the site of a strange gun fight. At approximately 9:47, six men dressed in cowboy costumes and carrying six-shooters walked into the bar and started rounding up hostages. Unfortunately for them, fourteen members of the elite 82nd Airborne were in the bar at the time after having just reported in to the Pentagon that day. The six "cowboys" were completely incapacitated and held while DC police could be called to arrest them. Subsequent identification of the six suspects revealed that they were unemployed Indian actors who had just that day flown into the US on H1b visas.
****
Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
Senior Research Fellow,
The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
Carleton University
http://marctyrrell.com/
There are no insurgents...they are dead endersRumsfeld: Shock and Awe, Shock and Awe - that's the way to do it! Look, let's send in a small, specialized team to take down the possible insurgents operating there; nothing too large or out of proportion, say a Battalion of Armor after a saturation bombing strike.
There are no insurgents...they are dead enders
There are no insurgents...they are dead enders
There are no insurgents...they are dead enders
There are no insurgents...they are dead enders
In the Pentagon
MarcT, you had me worried there for a minute. When I first started to read this, I thought you were going to indicate that Buckaroo Banzai's Hong Kong Cavaliers had sold out to the dark side of the force.
While the pathological scapegoating in the book ranges from annoying to disgusting, every once in a while Feith hits the target. I liked this line (describing a 2002 meeting): "The French defense ministry was represented by Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, a appealing person of formidable intellect and diplomatic finesse worthy of a government far more honorable than the one then in office in France." (p. 306).
That's gonna leave a mark.
I don't know, Steve. Wasn't it the best government Saddam could buy?
John Wolfsberger, Jr.
An unruffled person with some useful skills.
I think there's an interesting story there that hopefully will come out some day. I was told by someone in C9 in Baghdad in April 2003 that they had captured documents that listed the payments to French officials. They shipped them back to Washington, never to hear of the issue again.
I suspect they were in James Baker's attache case
when he made his swing through Paris, Berlin and Moscow in December 2003 and all three nations suddenly did a vigorous about face and agreed to forgive massive quantities of Iraqi debt after six months of saying they would NEVER do that...
Wouldn't surprise me.
I'll tell ya, at times this slips from far fetched to downright bizarre, as Mr. Feith sales off the edge of reality. Check this out.
Of course, Feith never considers for a second that a position he held might actually be wrong. Hence when his position doesn't carry the day, he attributes it to the nefarious maneuvering of other individuals or organizations.
One of the biggies is whether or not to place a great emphasis on the Iraqi "externals" (especially Chalabi). He contends over and over that CIA and DOS led the opposition to this, mostly because Chalabi complained about them in the 1990s.
But then he has to explain why, if stressing the "externals" was the right approach, it didn't become the administration's position. He contends that POTIS and the NSC Principles were in favor of it, but CIA and DOS were able to work around the policymakers and influence Bremer and Franks. How, you might ask did they do this? You're going to love this: he argues that it was because DOS and CIA had senior reps on the CENTCOM staff (the POLAD and CIA equivalent) while OSD and the Joint Staff didn't. The implication is that this allowed CIA and DOS to exercise more influence over CENTCOM than OSD and the Joint Staff.
He writes: "The makeup of the interagency teams at the combatant commands helps explain why CENTCOM's thinkin on contested issues--training exiles, involving Iraqis in our war plans, setting up a provisional government--often clashed with the views of the Pentagon leadership. Rumsfeld wasn't shy about imparting his thinking to his commanders, but no Secretary of Defense would contribute daily war-planning guidance--or influence military officers' attitudes--as persistencly or effectively as the resident State and CIA advisers with whom those officers were in continuous collaboration." (p. 371-2)
Please, Mr. Feith, put the bong down and walk away!!!
Last edited by SteveMetz; 04-20-2008 at 07:05 PM.
The Boy's mad...
and I don't mean angry. Surely no one is that naive. Surely?? Sure...hello! Hello, Doug???"...no Secretary of Defense would contribute daily war-planning guidance--or influence military officers' attitudes--as persistencly or effectively as the resident State and CIA advisers with whom those officers were in continuous collaboration."
I sincerely appreciate you reading this and posting excerpts -- so I don't have to waste coins on it...
and I don't mean angry. Surely no one is that naive. Surely?? Sure...hello! Hello, Doug???
I sincerely appreciate you reading this and posting excerpts -- so I don't have to waste coins on it...
I'm sure that's just the way it happened: Franks thought to himself, "Well, SECDEF told me to do 'A' but Powell has the POLAD tell me every day to do 'B' so I'm going with 'B'."
I wonder if there are unicorns and leprechauns in Mr. Feith's world?
On p. 397 Feith decries that while the conventional campaign was underway, Franks was willing to send a military liaison to the Kurdish parties but not the INC. Feith attributes that to the nefarious influence of CIA and DOS. I'm sure that was the reason and it didn't have anything to do with the fact that the Kurds had tens of thousands of trained fighters in the field, and the INC had an untrained and unequipped paper force of a few hundred. I think there was a unicorn there at the time too.
Maybe it was something he ate...
like those "Hearts, Stars, and Horseshoes, Clovers, and Blue Moons! Pots of Gold and Rainbows, and me Red Balloons!"
"What is best in life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women."
Iraq--Its Magically Delicious? (or, perhaps, "They're Always After me Lucky WMD!")like those "Hearts, Stars, and Horseshoes, Clovers, and Blue Moons! Pots of Gold and Rainbows, and me Red Balloons!"
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