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ORWELLIAN ANALYSIS:
War Is Peace
A growing number of current and former Generals want Rumsfeld to retire from his powerful office at the Pentagon as promptly as possible. Put another way, a rapidly swelling bloc of American Generals want George Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld.
Earlier this year, eight retired generals called for Rumsfeld’s immediate resignation. They were: General Anthony Zinni; Major General Paul Eaton; Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold; Major General John Batiste; Major General John Riggs; Major General Charles Swannack; Lieutenant General Paul van Riper and General Wesley Clark.
In his comments to the New York Times, General Paul Eaton stated,
“(Rumsfeld) has shown himself incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically and is far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to America’s mission in Iraq. Rumsfeld must step down.”Rumsfeld is now the oldest serving Secretary of Defense in American history, and many of his critics believe that he is out of his depth in Iraq—way out. Hobbled by a military that is disgruntled with his policy and his curt and abusive personal style, the top echelons of the US military are swiftly losing confidence in Rumsfeld’s leadership. Rumsfeld has become the biggest target for the majority of public criticism about the failed war in Iraq, but, securely ensconced on his self-constructed pedestal, he steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the cold, hard facts of the worsening military situation in Iraq.
Without Rumsfeld in his high-profile position at the Pentagon, Bush and Cheney would be smarting even more than they already are—with the constant barrage of criticism of the ill-conceived war in Iraq. Regardless of Rumsfeld’s taking much of the blame, Bush and Cheney are unquestionably responsible for their own failed policies. Rumsfeld is a longstanding adversary of Bush, Sr. In 1988, Rumsfeld tested the presidential waters briefly in a ploy to weaken Bush’s chances to succeed Reagan. In spite of the animosity between Bush, Sr. and Rumsfeld, he has come to epitomize the monumental failures of the Bush II administration.
In his latest book, State of Denial, Bob Woodward focuses on the constellation of crises centering on Rumsfeld and his rapidly mushrooming catalogue of colossal failures. Described by his peers and his professional associates as overbearing, aggressive, bullying, combative, tyrannical, doctrinaire, difficult, arrogant and stubborn, many of our leading military experts think Rumsfeld is the architect of the most colossal military disaster in American history—Iraq. There can be little serious doubt that Rumsfeld and his policies represent ground zero at the epicenter of the political and strategic disasters erupting around and steadily engulfing the Bush-Cheney White House in what is now a groaning sea of grief. But, the concerns over Rumsfeld’s problems are worse, much worse.
While he is difficult enough at the best of times, Rumsfeld is known to cheat at squash—a stunning revelation that strikes at the heart of his unsuitability for such a powerful position. Rumsfeld has lost the respect of his peers who view him as a ballooning case of egomania swathed in petty tyrannies that are exposed to the glaring light of day on the squash courts at the Pentagon. The man is now an object of revulsion for the majority of his colleagues in the federal government, and he has become deeply unpopular at the Pentagon.
Two of Rumsfeld’s most distinguished prosecutors served in Iraq. Major General Charles Swannack and Major General John Batiste think Rumsfeld is incompetent and a dismal strategist, whose blunders have caused the deaths of American soldiers, our allies and thousands of the innocent civilians of Iraq. Worse. These two highly decorated American military experts say that Rumsfeld “did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war.” There is a growing body of military opinion that Rumsfeld is covering up even more failures and scandals than those that have already become public knowledge.
Woodward accuses Rumsfeld of being at the center of the state of denial that has gripped the Bush-Cheney administration and paralyzed America’s government. When Woodward questioned Rumsfeld about an intelligence report on the accelerating deterioration in Iraq that predicted a radical escalation of insurgency in 2007, Rumsfeld pleaded ignorance, indecisiveness and inadequacy. “When was this? Gosh, I don’t know,” Rumsfeld said to Woodward. “I read so many of those intelligence reports, and they are all over the lot.”
Retired General William Odom has been much more forthright than General Abizaid. Stating categorically that the war in Iraq is “the worst strategic mistake in the history of the United States,” General Odom believes Bush and Rumsfeld’s strategy serves the long-range geopolitical interests of America’s enemies—not only China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, but also those of the terrorists inspired by Bin Laden, Zawahiri and the late Sayyid Qutb.
In his opinion, General Odom agrees with the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released in fragmentary form last week after immense pressure was brought to bear on the Bush White House. The secret NIE report found that the war in Iraq is fueling the growth of radical Islamic terrorism that threatens to attack America and its allies for generations to come.
Another forthright General, Gregory Newbold, wrote an article for Time magazine that explained his retirement four months before the launch of the Iraq War in these stark terms:
“I retired from the military four months before the March 2003 invasion, in part because of my opposition to those who had used 9/11’s tragedy to hijack our security policy.”More. General Newbold accuses the civilians who concocted the war of not knowing what they were doing. In Time, Newbold wrote:
“My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions—or bury the results.”While Newbold’s salient remarks were clearly aimed at George Bush and Dick Cheney, they are just as pertinent for Donald Rumsfeld, a US Secretary of Defense who never fought in any war.
In an interview with the New York Times, Major General Charles Swannack stated, “I do not believe Secretary Rumsfeld is the right person to fight that war based on his absolute failures in managing war against Saddam in Iraq.”
With his professional military support swiftly vanishing, Rumsfeld clings doggedly to power. His background is, at once, both illuminating and alarming.
Between 1954 and 1957, Rumsfeld was a pilot and flight instructor in the Navy. The moment of highest distinction in Rumsfeld’s military career came in 1956 when he became the All Navy Wrestling Champion, an accolade worthy of a collegiate athlete—not a soldier or a military expert. Rumsfeld served in the Naval reserves until 1975, but he never saw any active duty during Vietnam, largely because he was a member of Congress and then a cabinet official serving under Richard Nixon. Throughout the Vietnam era, Rumsfeld was a stalwart supporter of the unpopular and failing war. Senior members of the US military have not forgotten that Rumsfeld was the Ambassador to NATO during the chaotic evacuation of US personnel from South Vietnam, and he was rewarded with the post of Secretary of Defense shortly after the fall of Saigon.
After the defeat of Ford by Carter, Rumsfeld left the Pentagon to pursue a controversial high-profile career in the private sector. He made a fortune from the exploitation of Aspartame, a chemically based food additive that has been linked to cancerous brain tumors, brain lesions, low sperm count, testicular shrinkage, leukemia and lymphoma. In a scathing report, the UK Campaign for Truth in Medicine stated, “Aspartame is, by far, the most dangerous substance on the market that is added to foods.” According to financial reports, Rumsfeld pocketed twelve million dollars from Searle, the big pharmaceutical company he headed that manufactured Aspartame.
While he was president of Searle, Rumsfeld was also Ronald Reagan’s Special Envoy to the Middle East. During this period, Rumsfeld provided Saddam Hussein with military aid in the Iran-Iraq War. According to many accounts, Rumsfeld served as the main channel for military hardware and high-grade intelligence for Saddam Hussein.
During a 90-minute meeting with Saddam, Rumsfeld promised to help increase Iraqi oil production. When he ran for president in 1988, Rumsfeld boasted that one of his greatest achievements was restoring relations between the US and Iraq under Saddam. But, ten years later, Rumsfeld was one of the original signers of the Project for a New American Century that urged President Clinton to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
While Rumsfeld has urged the media to fight against terrorism, he has proven to be a poor advocate for the policies he has designed and implemented.
In a speech at the National Press Club, Rumsfeld pleaded, “We have to fight this battle where the terrorists are rather than waiting for them to force us to fight, God forbid, in our own schools.”
In the mind of Donald Rumsfeld, we are fighting a war against terror in Iraq rather than fighting against terrorists in “our own schools.”
In other words, we are fighting a war abroad in order to provide peace at home.
Or, stated more bluntly, in the mind of Donald Rumsfeld, “War is peace.”
For his denial of the state of war and his tendency to hide secret scandals and failures, historians of the future will record that Donald Rumsfeld personifies George Orwell’s nightmarish vision of humanity subservient to the dictatorial policies of doublethink—a dark and demented future dominated by the absurd dictums:
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength
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Established in 2003 the Planetary Movement Limited (PlanetaryTM) is on a mission to inform governments, media and the public about crucial issues related to the expansion and healthy growth of democracy and freedom.
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References:
- Secret Reports Dispute White House Optimism by Bob Woodward
- Should He Stay?
- Revolt of the Generals
- More Retired Generals Call For Rumsfeld’s Resignation
- The Carlyle Connection
- Secretary Rumsfeld’s Speech at the National Press Club
- Head of U.S. command: Iraq civil war possible
- For his failures, Rumsfeld must go
- Rumsfeld, Ashcroft received warning of al Qaida attack before 9/11
- 30 years on, Watergate journalist is shaking the White House again
- The Rumsfeld method for squashing all opposition (He cheats)
Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.
This story was published on October 5, 2006.
