Suskind: Rumsfeld declared that Iraq would ‘bend’ and ’succumb’ to U.S. views.
Suskind: Rumsfeld declared that Iraq would ‘bend’ and ’succumb’ to U.S. views.
Interviewed on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning, Ron Suskind, author of a new book that reveals that the White House forged a letter concocting a fake link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, criticized the administration’s pre-war arrogance. For example, Donald Rumsfeld once claimed that the U.S. could easily “bend” Iraq to think like the West:
SUSKIND: One of the quotes in the book which is picking up steam is Don Rumsfeld saying to folks, in meetings…saying essentially “we will bend,” he says, “Iraq to our reality. They will succumb to our view of how things should be.” That doesn’t happen. So we get into all manner of messes as we go forward.
Watch it:
Suskind added that Condoleezza Rice also selectively ignored the reality on the ground. In summer 2003, just the insurgency was taking root in Iraq, Rice reportedly said, “I don’t want to hear the I-word,” or insurgency, in any meetings.
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For those of us who choose to live in a fact-based reality, we have a difficult time perceiving live in a perception-based reality.
Is the sky blue in that world, too?
August 6th, 2008 at 5:02 pmla la la la la… im not listening to you (fingers in my ears) if i cant hear it, then i dont know about it and am not accountable for it… la la la la la la….
August 6th, 2008 at 5:03 pmThis might be funny, if the death toll weren’t so high.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:04 pm“our reality.” “our view of how things should be.”
What I wouldn’t give for some reality based leaders.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:04 pm“Rice reportedly said, “I don’t want to hear the I-word,”
I got an “i” word for you, condi…how about “indictment”
August 6th, 2008 at 5:05 pmRepublicans never like to hear “I-words” applied to their people or policies.
But those words are so applicable…
Insurgency
August 6th, 2008 at 5:05 pmIncompetence
Impeachable
Oh No! Condi would (Gasp!) ignore reality! Surely you must be joking! Surely you Can’t be serious!
August 6th, 2008 at 5:06 pmImpeach Pelosi, Cheney and Bush and Save the Constitution!
Rumsfeld declared that we would make Iraq bend over and suck’em.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:12 pmHey Rumhead; how’s that ‘bending and succumbing’ working out these days?
snark
August 6th, 2008 at 5:12 pmRice reportedly said, “I don’t want to hear the I-word,”
Idiot or imbecile , because it reminded you of your Chimpy-crush ……..
August 6th, 2008 at 5:13 pmZooey; my belated condolences about your mother. I only read that this morn from a thread from yesterday.
:-(
August 6th, 2008 at 5:13 pmThese are the freedumbs they hate us for.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:18 pmThank you, Uncle Ho. :)
August 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pmHow’s that bending and succumbing going for YOU, Condi?
August 6th, 2008 at 5:32 pmRumsfeld thought that the Iraqi people would bend to our imperial grip? Hmm, just like King George III of England thought the American colonies would bend to his imperial will back in 1775? We know how that bit of imperial “thinking” worked out… Rumsfeld is just another delusional neo-con imperialist, being hung out to dry by the patriotic Iraqis working to rid themselves of the imperial foreign occupiers.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:33 pmRUCerious Says:
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How’s that bending and succumbing going for YOU, Condi?
August 6th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Mind the visuals, RUC. Ick…
August 6th, 2008 at 5:36 pmZ ~ Whaaa? I could have meant the Iraqi kind of visuals…heh.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:41 pmI implore incompetent incumbents investigate implementing impeachment.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:42 pmWell, I don’t want to hear the L-word as in they will greet us a lesbians… er wait.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:42 pmDelusional is certainly one of the best words to describe Bush & co. There are many other words, equally negative, but it’s an appropriate one.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:02 pmAnd when Rumsfeld finally goes to jail as the war criminal he is, he, too, will “bend & succumb”.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:08 pmdasm Says:
Delusional is certainly one of the best words to describe Bush & co. There are many other words, equally negative, but it’s an appropriate one.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
“Criminal” is even more appropriate. But “delusional” is near the top, too. :)
August 6th, 2008 at 6:08 pmMy cats know that when they close their eyes — they’re invisible.
Maybe Rummy et. al occupy the CRZ (Cat Reality Zone).
August 6th, 2008 at 6:16 pmFrom the article: “…Rumsfeld saying to folks, “we will bend Iraq to our reality. They will succumb to our view of how things should be.”
This was around the same time Darth Cheney said, ‘We will be seen by the Iraqis as Liberators, greeted with flowers and chocolates’, or some such tripe.
Anyone with half a brain knew it was false then, and here we are, six years later…
August 6th, 2008 at 6:23 pmLeave it to a former wrassler to come up with the “Headlock Theory” of foreign engagement.
What hapless tools those neocons are – no wonder Colin Powell called them “loonies”.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:24 pmBend as in BOHICA?
August 6th, 2008 at 8:43 pmMy god, the depth of their delusion is breathtaking.
The imperial project they undertook was never more clear.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:37 pmThe tragic thing is that if only Rumsfeld, Rice, Bremer, Cheney and Bush had not listened to revenge-seeking Iraqi exiles like Ahmad Chalabi and kept on 90 percent of the Sunni Baathists in their positions in government, the Iraqi military, police and intelligence forces, while only purging the top-level Sunni Baathists, in all likelihood things would have gone a lot smoother.
If these neo-con nincompoops had applied the lessons learned in Afghanistan after 9/11 to post-war Iraq, then they’d have increased salaries for all government workers while increasing food subsidies and distribution to all Iraqi citizens…in other words, spread enough money around up-front to gain the allegiance of Iraqi citizens like that which happened in Afghanistan when U.S. operatives carried suitcases filled with money around to buy-off the Afghani warlords, getting them to switch sides from the Taliban.
However, by firing all the more-secular Sunni Baathists from the post-war Iraqi government, these neo-con nincompoops threw wide the door to all the Iraqi Shiites holding a grudge against all the Sunni Baathists, leading to widespread sectarian killings and an attempt by certain radical Iraqi Shia to establish a Taliban-like Islamic Republic.
I knew Iraq was going to be hell on earth as soon as I heard the first reports (within weeks after U.S. forces reached Baghdad) of more-secular, non-religious-fanatic establishments or individuals (movies houses, video stores, liquor stores, restaurants that served wine with a meal, etc. etc.) in Iraq being either, respectively, fire-bombed or executed.
You see, certain of the more religious fundamentalist Iraqis (mainly Shia) viewed the removal of the more secular Saddam Hussein and his government as a golden opportunity to impose their sharia hell on everyone else in Iraq. They’d been advocating for this for years…with Saddam Hussein’s forces crushing all attempts to turn Iraq into another Taliban/al Qaeda-ruled Afghanistan….or another Islamic Republic like next door in Iran.
So, the idea that Rumsfeld etal. could impose a western-styled democracy in Iraq after getting rid of all the people, primarily Sunni Baathists, who had a more secular, cosmopolitan tradition (hey, most of the Sunni Baathists, men and women, even wore western-style clothing, versus traditional Arab/Muslim robes), amounted to an insane pipe-dream on the part of the neo-con Republican nincompoops.
Our soldiers and many Iraqi citizens over in Iraq have died because of this delusional decision by Rumsfeld etal. shortly after Bush launched his unprovoked, unnecessary war against Iraq. (Hmmm, we haven’t seen much of Rumsfeld recently. I wonder if he’s been committed to some institution for the criminally insane, helping keep the bunks warm for when Cheney, Bush, Rice and Bremer join him?).
August 6th, 2008 at 10:14 pmMay I add to my post @ #18,
I implore incompetent incumbents investigate implementing impeachment immediately.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:26 pm