My LTTE on Rumsfeld OpEd

[reichstag911]

His "Birth of a free press..." tripe at: http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-ref16.html#

My LTTE in response:

Subject: "Birth of a free press...," Donald H. Rumsfeld, 5/16/06
To: "Chicago Sun-Times Letters to the Editor" <[email protected]>

Dear Sirs:

Thank you so much for the opinion piece by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld in Monday's paper, although I thought it should have more properly been in the Comics section. Oh, the high hilarity of Sec. Rumsfeld pontificating on the virtues of a free press and the benefits accruing to the Iraqi people -- those we haven't killed yet, that is. Don, you wacky funster, you kill me!

After all, to speak of a "free" press in Iraq while the Dept. of Defense is paying to plant "good news" stories, true or not, is rich. And Rumsfeld's characterization of "Baghdad Bob" as something less than a "poster child for accuracy?" On its own, that should get him a show on Comedy Central. This is the man, remember, who famously said on Meet the Press, then denied having said it, "We know where (the WMDs) are; they're in the area around Tikrit,...." When a genuine advocate of freedom, former career CIA officer Ray McGovern called out Rumsfeld on his mendacity, Don could only stammer inanities in response. His allusion to the "bitter joke" of Uday Hussein being "elected" Journalist of the Century was a highlight, too; there are many who can recall a more bitter joke of an "election" in 2000, and that one put Rumsfeld in his current office.

I could go on, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, pointing out the absurdity of this pathologically power-hungry PNAC ideologue spreading the gospel of Iraqi freedom, but I will sum it up by pointing out his byline: he is the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and should be more concerned about American freedoms than the Iraqis'. When the bureaucracy in which he "works" advocates prosecuting journalists who publish stories of the administration's illegal activities, something is dramatically wrong, and Don should worry a little more about the freedom of our American press.

Best,
--me--

[cliss]

1. Nice.

You've pointed out some glaring inconsistencies.

Don, are you reading this?

[reichstag911]

2. Thanks.

Don probably won't read it unless they publish it...which they have done with several of my anti-Bush cabal screeds.

[reichstag911]

3. Now that's unprecedented!

I just got the confirmation of authorship call from the Sun-Times on the letter I sent them only 5+ hours ago! They have never called me that quickly before, so I figure they must have really liked it, and will most likely be publishing it. Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewl...