Reply #2: Nice editorial.

[cliss]

You can say whatever you want about Rumsfeld, but he is not a fool. I absolutely believe he set the stage for the torture to happen. He defended his actions in testimony to the congressional committees. Of course, he lied, but if you read his testimony very carefully, you will see that he approved of many of the methods of "interrogaton" that they used. He even approved the use of dogs. For God's sake, he even toured the prison twice in 2003.

I took several business classes; in every class the instructors repeated the same statement: a company is only as good as its management. You can have the best employees, but if you have inept management, the company will be in trouble because the management makes all the decisions.

And Rumsfeld made it very clear on what he's going to do now. He's staying put. After he got off the plane when he arrived at Abu Ghraib prison to "tour" it, he said that he had been reading a book about Abraham Lincoln and the civil war. He said those were tough times. Lincoln got criticized a lot. But over time, things turned out OK. "Time will pass over this, and Iraq will become free".

Rumsfeld is very clearly comparing himself to Lincoln. He's enduring tough times. Public sentiment is against him. But by God, he's going to prevail and time will prove him to be right.

Pay attention, and the man will tell you everything you want to know.