Rumsfeld initially declared Iraq ‘off limits’ for new biography.
Rumsfeld initially declared Iraq ‘off limits’ for new biography.
Washington Post reporter Bradley Graham has a new biography out on Donald Rumsfeld called “By His Own Rules.” According to a review in the New York Times, Graham “goes out of his way to give Mr. Rumsfeld the benefit of the doubt,” but ultimately concludes that the former Defense Secretary was “neglectful” in planning for post-war Iraq. However, Rumsfeld originally refused to talk about Iraq at all:
Mr. Graham writes that Mr. Rumsfeld initially “put talk about Iraq off limits” when he agreed to be interviewed for this book, and while he “relented and addressed a number of aspects of the war” in their final interview in late 2008, his remarks in this area aren’t terribly illuminating for the reader.
President Bush has similarly been trying to erase Iraq from his legacy. A recent five-minute promotional video for his presidential library had just one mention of Iraq (and a full 35 seconds of clips of 9/11 and Bush’s subsequent reaction). Bush’s official bio on his presidential library doesn’t have a single mention of Iraq either.
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Kind of hard to be proud of Iraq, isn’t it guys?
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:35 amGreat start today – would be hard to think of more stooooooopid, marginalized people to post about. Folks that even the repug “base” doesn’t support in any meaningful way.
The the ignorance rain down from the heavens and let the skies thunder with the rants of obscure repug/neocons!
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 amWithout Iraq, how can President Bush be considered the War President that he always wanted to be?
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 amrumsfeld was the poppa bear of all defense secretaries. he is the mold for all pentagon chiefs. i was awe-inspired at this mad. seeing him step down made me cry hard.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 amPredictable start to a thread:
article about irresponsible right-winger, followed by AJ ranting about how the thread should be about health care.
okay, now that we’ve got the preliminaries taken care o, can we move on?
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:44 amralph is it appropriate to esculate to the higher stages this easrly in the day when the kids are about?
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:44 am#5 — Thanks for clarifying what post #2 was supposed to be about. That was a post about health care? Sure had me fooled.
Don’t you just “love” phoney macho men like Rumsfeld? What a twit.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:48 amThat’s your call, dbadass. I trust your judgment on the escalation. But let’s call it “The Surge” rather than an ‘escalation”, shall we? So much more manly.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:48 amOh, I thought Bush said he wanted to be the whore president.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 amwatchdog Says:
Kind of hard to admit being conned into a vote on the bases of ending the war?
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there’s a base on ending the war!!??!? does BRAC know about this?
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 amRummy is only following a long Republican tradition, check out “Tear Down this Myth” by Will Bunch to see it at it’s most effective.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:01 pmrumsfeld defended freedom for six years! give the business man his credit – he didnt even receive severance for his remarkable work!!!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:01 pmBeing shy of the FAILURE of the Iraq war wouldn’t have anything to do with the FAILURE to find WMDs, would it?
How about the New-Clown’s dogmas of Spraying Freedumbs across the Middle East? How about catching OBL?
How about the “coalition of the ingenuous”?
How about Iraq paying for itself?
You assclown GOPiggies ought to keep barking the glories of the Iraq war. This is fun.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:02 pmat least rumsfeld sprayed freedom. clinton sprayed something else on the “middle east.”
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:03 pmI know Rumsfeld completely fu(ked up, but don’t you think cutting his head off is a bit too severe of a punishment?
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:04 pmNot talking about Iraq won’t make it vanish Rummy but it is an admission of failure on your part. Anyone from the Bush defense or state department who refuses to own up to that fiasco just draws more attention to it. Kind of like Hoover not wanting to talk about the depression.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 pmI am taking care of my health by liberally applying anti-Bushicide until the neocon rash is gone.
(This claim not researched, approved, or endorsed by the FDA or by AJ. All rights reserved. Not available in Texas.)
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:08 pmMaybe they should have him neutered.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:09 pmI know Rumsfeld completely fu(ked up, but don’t you think cutting his head off is a bit too severe of a punishment?
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no – oh shit! that’s not what i meant, NOT WHAT I MEANT!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:09 pmshoeless Says:
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the great GOPsby Says:
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he didnt even receive severance for his remarkable work!!!
I know Rumsfeld completely fu(ked up, but don’t you think cutting his head off is a bit too severe of a punishment?
Maybe. But I can think of another body part that could be cut off as punishment. What the heck, take GOPsy’s too…although I doubt either Rummy or GOPsy uses his much anyway.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:09 pmwhere was clinton on 9/11? his bungalow in new york sipping a latte.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 pmstop it! it’s not what i meant! make it stop!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pmjoeyramonesmom
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with filthy comments like yours you call yourself a mom?
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pmno – oh shit! that’s not what i meant, NOT WHAT I MEANT!
Isn’t this a quote from Alberto Gonzales? Or was it Rumsfeld? I wish trolls would identify the source of their quotes.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pmWhat’s the matter Another Joe? Does it upset you when the lies, crimes committed and ineptness of the former regime are discussed here at TP. Do you want some cheese to go with your WHINE?
Oh whaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh, quit bringing up Bush and his corrupt cronies or the republicon party, just stop it, instead we should be attacking the socialist Obama and them evil democrats for trying to fix the clusterphuck left for them by little king pissy pants and the do nothing republicons.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:12 pmYou go with the severence you got, not the severence you want.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:13 pmkid: mom can you make me a sandwhich?
mom: not before i neuter you!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:13 pmevery job rumsfeld has he recieved a severance. you pay the man what hes worth you dont stiff him. the government owes him big time.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:15 pmno – oh shit!
with filthy comments like this, you call yourself a conservative?
that’s not what i meant, NOT WHAT I MEANT!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:15 pmwith unthoughtful comments you reference like this, you call yourself “great”?
I wouldn’t want to talk about the Iraq clusterfuçk either.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:16 pmDumbsfelt did receive his fair reward.
Dumped just one day after the 2006 elections among growing criticism of his performance and repeated promises from the Chimp to keep him.
The Chimperor didn’t even have the courtesy of waiting until next Friday after 5:00 pm.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:16 pmHey kids, let’s write a biography of McNamara without talking about Vietnam! A biography of Kissinger without talking about the 1973 Arab-Israeli War! (or Vietnam)! How on earth can this idiot author expect anyone would want to buy his book? What is the point of writing it?
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:16 pmoh shit!
I apologize for my response to this commentary as I did not understand its underlying meaning, to wit:
you pay the man what hes worth
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:17 pmi am a conservative. i go for the shit i want and you do as i say, not as i do. when i told clinton not to go for the strudel did any way. it was a blight on the rule of law the day he was acquitted. the jury was tainted – the evidence was there he enjoyed the strudel!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:18 pmthe great GOPsby Says:
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kid: mom can you make me a sandwhich?
mom: not before i neuter you!
I think YOU’RE the one with a dirty mind. I meant ‘ear’ because neither you or Rummy ever listens to those who disagree with you. Shame on you! And, like Sarah Palin, I kindly ask you to leave my child out of this. TP Regulars, will you work with me to organize a “Fire GOPsy Campaign?”
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:18 pmi’m a more truthy christian than you could ever claim, brotha!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:19 pmI don’t recall.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:20 pmAfter Rumsfeld’s performance as SecDef, this is a surprise?…Mr. Graham where were you for the last 8 years?
You mean, he’s not proud to be responsible for untold death and destruction in the pursuit of capitalist hegemony?
WTF?…
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:21 pmwatchdog Says:
Kind of hard to admit being conned into a vote on the bases of ending the war?
That’s what they get for trusting people like you…
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:21 pmno you leave your child out of this! you posted his full name on the tubes! what kind of motherness are you! repent the stench! free the greed!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:21 pmAnother Joe Says:
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 am
Jesus christ, f uck off. We’re all concerned about the health care issue. Do you actually think hanging around TP is the only thing we ever do? LIKE YOU?
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:22 pmwatchdog Says:
larkohio Says:
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Kind of hard to be proud of Iraq, isn’t it guys?
Kind of hard to admit being conned into a vote on the bases of ending the war?
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:52 am
…
“bases”?
“conferenece”?
the gop will be making a great comeback.
***
just as soon as they learn to spell.
:)
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 pmAh geez more pretend Australian acid dropping…
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 pmI can’t decide who to toy with first….
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 pmno you leave your child out of this! you posted his full name on the tubes! what kind of motherness are you! repent the stench! free the greed!
LOL. Do you really think that’s my kid’s name?
Oh, and you’re insane, so I’m ignoring you now. I don’t engage Chicken Little trolls. Buh-bye.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:26 pmWe are all filthy, disingenuous progressives. Don’t we know that boy george 43 lied our country into war for our own safety?
Don’t we realize that if boy george 43 hadn’t dropped the ball on 9/11 and hadn’t attacked a country that had nothing to do with his failures on 9/11 that our country would have been over run by scary Islamic extremists?
Don’t you know that if boy george hadn’t sent our troops to an unnecessary and costly war in Iraq, we would have scary terrorists crawling out of the wood work to kill all of us and all of our children?
Don’t we realize that if boy george wouldn’t have shredded our constitution and broken laws and international treaties, the Western world would have fallen into the hands of Islam and we would all be forced convert to Islam and our women and daughters would all be forced to wear burkas while all of us men would have to grow beards?
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:26 pm…
another troll.
another ot.
another day.
:|
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:26 pmIraq will always be the dominating topic of the Bush presidency and with Rumsfeld’s leadership — it defined them. Both of the men failed, and they’d like history to “erase” what is their “signature.”
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:27 pmthe great GOPsby Says:
i’m a more truthy christian than you could ever claim, brotha!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:28 pm“““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““`
Real Christians don’t boast about themselves or their works.
Rummy is the essence of the debacle in Iraq. He pushed for this thru the PNAC for years and when the fear had been turned up to eleven he saw his chance. Working with/thru the OSP he fed the missinformation to the rest of the world.
Rummy may want to ignore it but he’s stuck to it like Nixon is to Watergate.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:28 pmLOL. Do you really think that’s my kid’s name?
Oh, and you’re insane, so I’m ignoring you now. I don’t engage Chicken Little trolls. Buh-bye.
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yeah, you go suck on your latte and bill clinton’s noggin, tramp! just because you ignore someone doesnt make you important in the least!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 pmwould be hard to think of more stooooooopid, marginalized people to post about.
I’m a bit slow – off my insightful psychologist game I guess.
Nonetheless, this comment made me understand what AJ really wants. So, on his behalf, I will formally make the request to TP to meet his need, to wit:
TP, I respectfully request that you replace the Think Fast everyday with an “Another Joe” thread to permit all of us regulars the opportunity to give attention where attention is due. Thank you.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 pmSounds like Rummy doesn’t want to further implicate himself in the crimes committed by the Bush regime in regards to sending our country into war on false intelligence and allowing torture.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:32 pmThat’s hilarious. How culturally illiterate can you be. Forget wanting to be sedated this new pretender already is…
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:32 pmThey kept Iraq off limits until the publisher told him they could only print it as a pamphlet that way.
.
the great GOPsby Says:
What the hell is this, stream-of-consciousness poetry? Flag, flag flag…
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:33 pmuck your kid! it’s your kids responsibility to grow up to give me freedom. get that kid ready to serve me! i’ll do him a favor and serve as an analyst with a defense contractor. that will give him something to appreciate about stateside heroes like me!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:33 pmWhat is there obsession with lattes?
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:34 pmSorry gang but pretend boy is too lame for me to even play with…
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:35 pmThe Borgen Project has some good info on the cost of addressing global poverty.
$30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:35 pm$550 billion: U.S. Defense budget
Flag, flag flag…
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catch bill with his pants down again?
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:35 pmHunh, who would have thought that me and Rumsfeld have something in common: I don’t like discussing my failures either.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:35 pmI suspect the great GOPsby is attempting to be a parody in the great tradition of Stephen Colbert. Unfortunately, he’s coming off as someone with a severe multiple personality disorder.
Maybe if he works at it a bit, he’ll wind up being entertaining.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 pmatsegga:
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:38 pmI will give gernerously as some as Borgen answers my question
Rumsfeld declaring Iraq to be “off limits”? Wouldn’t this be like writing a biography about Abraham Lincoln and not mentioning the Civil War? Or writing a biography about Richard Nixon and not mentioning Watergate? Or writing a biography about Charlie Chaplin and not mentioning the motion picture industry?
Unfortunately for Rumsfeld, merely declaring Iraq to be “off-limits” for his interviews with Graham doesn’t mean Graham wouldn’t include something so important in the book. I guess once that sunk in, Rumsfeld decided to speak about it.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:41 pmFreeMarketLiberal Says:
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Wow. TP just got more stupid after that post.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 pmthe great GOPsby Says:
where was clinton on 9/11? his bungalow in new york sipping a latte.
““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
There you have it folks, the mind of a clueless republicon troll. Never mind that the president at the time of 9/11 was vacationing at his ranch in Crawford and reading a book to school children in Florida instead of following up on ALL the evidence and warnings given to him and his administration about a coming terrorist attack in the US.
It is much easier for these clueless trolls to deny or that the man in charge of the country on 9/11 is responsible for allowing 9/11 to happen ON HIS WATCH and much easier to pin the blame on Clinton, see if Clinton hadn’t been playing with Monica, the terrorists wouldn’t of ever attacked us. Damn that Clinton, damn him all to hell. *snark*
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:43 pmNot TP, just FreeMarketLoser…
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:46 pmI believe what I said yesterday. I don’t know what I said, but I know what I said, and…well, I assume it’s what I said. – Donald Rumsfeld
Now, about this book, Mr. Rumsfeld….
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:46 pmZooey Says
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Wow. TP just got more stupid after that post.
____________________________________________________________
Not to worry. FML won’t stick around. Expect to see this same post on all the threads, but it’s the only one from FML you’ll see today, since it probably took him all morning to compose it.
He just likes to swoop in, make some squawking noise, take a crap, and fly away. Sort of like a seagull.
He’s way too cowardly to stick around and engage in actual discourse about any of the topics.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:47 pmthe great GOPsby Says:
Hi Trajan, are things a little slow at your new stalker blog.
Next time you see Marc Koldys, tell him I said hi.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:48 pmIn the minds of FML, AJ and the like the faster they can put the Bush years behind them the better. Let’s make it easy on them.
President Obama, for the sake of this country and the peace of mind for all those that have beleived the last administration was right, allow for full and open investigations on Gitmo, WMD’s, the run up to the invasion of Iraq, the releasing of a Secret Service’s identity, the missing emails and the political firings of AG’s. So we can finally let the healing begin.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 pmthe great GOPsby Says:
every job rumsfeld has he recieved a severance. you pay the man what hes worth you dont stiff him. the government owes him big time.
For a guy who took the job with a portfolio valued at 250 million dollars, delayed selling off his holdings in various military industrial corporations for much of his tenure in office and refused to sell off his holdings in Gilead Sciences (how happy is he with the swine flu, er sorry pork industry, epidemic because of all of the Tamiflu the government has to buy) I don’t Donny needs to worry about severances.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:00 pmI wonder what level of hell is reserved for the slaughter of 650,000 innocent men, women, and children?
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:18 pmthe great GOPsby Says
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
where was clinton on 9/11? his bungalow in new york sipping a latte.
____________________________________________________________
How do you know this? Were you with him? And what’s your point?
He may very well have been sipping a latte at the time of the first attack (it was 8:45 in the morning, after all), but I’d be willing to bet he spent the rest of the day glued to his teevee like the rest of us.
In case you didn’t realize it, on 9/11/01, Bill Clinton was a private citizen. What do you think he should have been doing?
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:30 pmPatrioticLiberalChristian Says:
no – oh shit! that’s not what i meant, NOT WHAT I MEANT!
Isn’t this a quote from Alberto Gonzales? Or was it Rumsfeld? I wish trolls would identify the source of their quotes.
I think Rummy said he didn’t have any known knowns or know where his quotes came from or what he actually meant. Or something like that.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:30 pmhe was probably muttering to himself something like “dammit! I tried to warn them! why wouldn’t they listen?”
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:50 pmRumsfeld = war criminal
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:49 pmRumsfeld’s entire life was built on lies and deception. He wants to continue that in his biography.
Why would anyone waste money and time reading lies about the life of a mass murderer?
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:50 pmgreat gopsby come back!
Do you completely have your head up your @$$, or just partway!
You are funny! You cant possibly believe what you are saying!
Keep making things up and living in your head, maybe it will eventually help your party regain majority. seems to be the gop creed.
OK ignoring you again, dont reply.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:05 pmWhat’s he going to say?
We carpet bombed the cities with the expectation that we would be greeted with flowers and candy.
That didn’t work.
So we kept bombing, fired the professionals who kept the lights on and the water running, leaving the country in limbo.
That didn’t work—they started fighting back.
So we used the Salvador Option—sent Negroponte and fired up the Death Squads, while still bombing. We also kicked in doors in the middle of the night and dragged males off to prison.
That didn’t work—militias were formed. So we paid them not to fight.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:26 pmSesli Chat
Sesli sohbet
Thanks
June 27th, 2009 at 4:15 pm