Rumsfeld Hails 'Wonderful Start' to New Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030906/ts_nm/iraq_dc&cid=564&ncid=1478

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lauded the "wonderful start" to rebuilding Iraq on Saturday even as guerrillas attacked his troops and hundreds of protesters marched to demand jobs.

Meeting U.S. and Polish soldiers in the ancient ruins of Babylon, Rumsfeld acknowledged reviving post-war Iraq was a tough task given the poor state of services and daily attacks. snip

In the latest attack on U.S. troops, a Humvee military vehicle was burned out after driving over an explosive in the northern town of Mosul on Saturday. There were no serious injuries, the U.S. military said.

Underlining the threat to Iraqis working with the Americans, attackers fired rocket propelled grenades at a police station in the town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Five officers were injured, witnesses said.

more

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

1. BWAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Rummy made a joke! Good one, dude!

[joeybee12]

2. I can't laugh

I just keep thinking of all the blood spilled, all the lives living in terror (Iraqi civilians and US troops) and it's just too awful. Rummy is pure evil, no doubt about it.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

4. Too true, Joeybee. Too true.

[Enraged_Ape]

3. Rumsfeld is about to be fired

I predict within two weeks, and good fuckin' riddance.

He acts like he's gone completely crazy, but I just think he doesn't give a shit what he says anymore. He knows he's toast, so he's just making it up as he goes along until "time with his family" suddenly becomes more important to him.

[NNN0LHI]

7. I think he is on borrowed time too

One of the news readers on MSNBC insinuated today that he was shipped out of the country while the delicate diplomacy of bringing the UN into this mess back in Washington was going on. He is on cable right now and he even looks like he knows he is a short timer.

Don

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. Does that make Wolfie SOD?

:scared:

[Enraged_Ape]

11. Probably

You can always count on this administration, when they are forced to fire someone, to install someone even more loathsome in their place. I think it's to teach us a lesson not to mess with them.

[chookie]

16. I concur

Rummy has gotten even too nuts for THIS administration -- and that is up against some PRETTY stiff competition from Ashcroft.

Between the temper tantrum in Iraq (no doubt he went over to personally bully his already handpicked military followers, oops, I meant leaders into propping him up a while longer, and the disastrous Mad Dog performance in his interview with Rather in which he was unmistakably barking mad -- he's gonna go. He's now desperately trying to hold onto his power. Yikes.

One thing bothers me though - Rumsfeld has always been pretty nuts, and heaven knows he has edited all the really competent people out of the Pentagon and replaced them with his Yes Men -- but he has given indications from time to time that *he* himself is being pressured by people even more extreme than himself (i.e. Perle and Wolfowitz). Maybe Rummy is being set as the Fall Guy for the failure of the ideology of Wolfowitz and the Neocons and Kenny Boy's Forty Thieves-- whereas his leaving will only provide a vacuum into which Perle and Wolfowitz will fill in even more maniacal fashion! Rummy has "fucked up" in the sense he has showed his Nuts card in public -- as Trent Lott did -- when the Oily Rule is that you keep your insanity just within your peer group.

[rooboy]

5. And he completed his speech with...

"Oh Magoo, you've done it again!!!"

[MrBenchley]

6. The guys at The Onion appear to be writing his speeches

So if thing are going so swell, why is pResident Turd begging the UN for help?

[xchrom]

8. he's a pig

a pig with a mission -- no matter what say the killing of all these innocent people is a good thing.
plus -- i think he's meeting with david kay to find out how the ''about to be found'' wmd thing is going.

[Flying_Pig]

9. Ja, Herr Rumsfeld, ve must keep up der...

propaganda offensive. Iran and Syria await. If you deviate from the PNAC plan, ve vill find you a nice "hole" in the desert! Our "puppet" vill be on television tomorrow to do his part. If we can't quell the populace now, ve vill be forced to call out der storm troopers! Now get busy!
:evilgrin:
<http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,287510,00.jpg>

[UTUSN]

12. Darth Rums Was EERILY Subduded at That Press Conf

And the dude from the Dallas paper: "Here's an e-mail that says, 'What did (Rums) accomplish with those photo ops that he couldn't do from his desk in D.C.?' "

If the press is dissing him openly, something's up.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

13. I had to grin when that question came up...

And what a lame response; "There are others that say I don't travel enough."

[Palacsinta]

14. What "Riverbend" in Iraq had to say Re: Rummy

(worth repeating if already posted)...."To make matters worse, Rumsfeld is in Iraq. It’s awful to see him strutting all over the place. I hate the hard, smug look that seems plastered on his face… some people just have cruel features. The reaction to seeing him on tv differs from the reaction to seeing Bremer or one of the puppets. The latter are greeted with jeers and scorn. Seeing Rumsfeld is something else- there’s resentment and disgust. It feels like he’s here to add insult to injury… you know, just in case anyone forgets we’re an occupied country.

And now he’s going to go back to America and give a speech about how he doesn’t know what anyone is talking about when they say ‘chaos’ (*he* was safe in the middle of all his bodyguards)… how electricity and water are functioning (after all, his air-conditioner was working *fine*)… how the people are gloriously happy and traffic is frequently at a stand-still because the Iraqis are dancing in the streets… how the ‘armed forces’ are cheerful and *grateful* to be on this heroic, historical mission… how kids wave at him, troops cheer him, dogs wag their tails in welcome and doves hover above his head…

To hell with him.

And no. I'm not whining- I'm ranting. You can't see me right now, but I'm shaking my fist at the computer screen, shaking my fist at the television, and heaping colorful, bilingual insults on Rumsfeld's head (hope the doves crap on him)... I'm angry....."
more
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

[bobthedrummer]

15. A wonderful start to War in the 21st Century-PNAC style

he should have said, the end of the nation state and the beginning of the new militarism.
http://carlisle-www.army.mil/library/bibs/warfar03.htm

RMA
http://www.datafilter.com/mc/rmaWarCollege.html

RPMA
http://www.guerrillacampaign.com/coup.htm

Shock and Awe
http://www.dodccrp.org/shockIndex.html

:nuke: