Steve Clemons on Rumsfeld

[Cassandra]

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001116.html

"It has always been under Donald Rumsfeld that these abuses have occurred. He should have been forced to resign two years ago, but he still stands strong -- giving his "aw shucks, it's not my fault" responses to these disasters.

Over the weekend, Tim Russert pushed Senator John Warner on the subject of battalion commanders' alleged requests for more troops to accomplish their missions in Iraq. Warner would not comment on what was said in a private meeting with these field commanders, but word leaked out that nearly all field commanders have been requesting more troops -- and made a major plea for such troops in August 2005.

Rumsfeld continues to say that he has not been asked by his commanding officers for more troops and would give them whatever they need. This is clearly a political optics game. Rumsfeld is lying and knows that U.S. commanders on the ground do not believe that they have the troop levels to do the job being requested -- and that their commanders in the Pentagon are not asking for more troops because Rumsfeld does not want them to.

Rumsfeld is destroying the U.S. military, its morale, and its nuts-and-bolts operations.

Because of Abu Ghraib, this Aegis Defense video, and many other incidents that have exposed immoral behavior by American operatives engaged in what appears to average Iraqis to be an occupation and not a liberation -- our soldiers cannot do much more than flounder in current circumstances. To really get hold of Iraq again would take, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, 500,000 troops -- four times what we have currently deployed."

I'm having trouble thinking of a punishment for Rummy that would be satisfying enough. We don't do "drawn and quartered" anymore.

[wtbymark]

1. Hanging for treason is still on the books

[calimary]

2. I would love to do a "Nanny 911" on this bunch.

They're the worst bunch of pirates, crooks, and thugs EVER to disgrace our White House and our Pentagon. They need some pretty severe discipline, starting with removal from office and time spent defending themselves in a court of law, followed by time spent in federal prison. All their ill-gotten gains should be stripped from them and an example should be made so that their henchmen and would-be followers and self-anointed heirs and other assorted newt gingriches out there would take heed and self-regulate - SO WE DON'T HAVE TO DO IT FOR THEM.

Sorry, but I find myself again looking upon this as a mom would. One disclaimer though - I would NOT LET MY KIDS devolve to this level of greed, ruthlessness, and recklessness, in the first place. They know better. I think by now they've proven that, while not perfect, they're basically decent and honorable and unselfish human beings. Neither of them EVER was a schoolyard bully, but then neither of them ever had the temperament for such asshole antics. A mom, faced with the world-class horrendous kind of misbehavior these people have exhibited - would yank them off to bed, cut their cable and tv with wire-cutters, cancel all their parties and play dates and sleepovers, and ground them into next year with nothing but their school books for company.

We actually had to do that with our son who, sweet-natured and good-hearted and well-intentioned as he is, was screwing up royally in school. We took wire cutters to the tv. Literally. AND the cable, too, so there was no way he could somehow plug it all back in when we weren't looking. Yanked him out of the karate school he adored and fantasized about moving into, cancelled all after-school stuff but the most important music lessons. No Boy Scouts, either. No more wrestling on TV, no Smackdown, no Raw, no WWF or WWE or whateverthefuck they're calling it this week. He even had to miss the huge televised memorial for some big wrestling star who was recently found dead in his hotel room at a pitifully young age. Our son literally had nothing to do after school but mope, pout, study and be tutored. And his grades improved. He couldn't help it. He had nothing else going on in his life.

Clearly george was never disciplined. Everything was always made okay and cleaned up and set right and swept under the rug and he was allowed somehow to carry on with no lessons learned and no consequences faced and no penalties to pay for his bad behavior and piss-poor attitude of imperial entitlement. I blame that old maggot barbara bush for that. Her for-shit parenting "skills" (and those of her hapless twerp husband - and their children's no-doubt absentee father) are what led this country, and the world, to the utter fiasco we're all in now. Whenever I see ANY misbehavior or poor conduct displayed anywhere, my first and only thought always is - "who the hell brought you up?????"