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Interview with Tony Snow, 4/11

HOW ABOUT THOSE YOUNG PEOPLE IN IRAN . .

"I can’t imagine that the young people and the women in that country admire the kinds of comments that are being made by their leaders in their government. Furthermore, I think they very likely do not want to be isolated from the world. They feel that they have a right to be a part of the world. And to the extent you have a government that’s behavior pattern is such that it tends to cause other nations to pull away and isolate their country, I can’t imagine that that’s a very pleasing thing."

BUT WE REFUSE TO TALK TO IRAN . . .

"A second point I would make is the one the President makes and that’s that look, we’re on a diplomatic track. The President’s decided that he wants to work with the European countries and other nations in the world and see if it isn’t possible to have the United Nations and other international organizations, the EU, encourage a behavior pattern on Iran that would be more acceptable to the world."

THEY DO STUFF THAT WE WOULD NEVER THINK OF . . .

"Iran is a country that has supported terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, and to the extent a country that supports terrorist organizations seeks weapons of mass destruction capability, it’s a worrisome thing I think for free people."

PERHAPS WE COULD EASE THOSE MULLAHS INTO RETIREMENT . . .

"Well, it’s possible. If you think back how rapidly Iran flipped from the Shah to the Ayatollahs, and then in reverse think of how rapidly those Eastern European countries fell after the Wall came down. And what looked like a powerful, strong government, a repressive government and a fortress that can’t be breached, and then in a day people mobbed the places and the squares, public squares, and the government fell, and it all changed. So those things can happen."

THE PRESS THINKS WE'RE GOING TO WAR IN IRAN . . .

"Well, it’s fascinating. They’re certainly looking for news. They’re constantly trying to stir up something."

MOVING TO IRAQ, HOW ABOUT IF WE JUST PULLED OUT?

"I think the consequences would be dire. That you would have a country with wealth of oil and water; a country with a long history and a lot of population - 25 million people - that would be turned into a haven for terrorists and they would be well financed. It would put instabilities into the neighboring countries in the region. It would offer a location for terrorists to recruit and train and be financed and to develop weapons of great power, and the dangers to the free world and to free people would be just enormous. The safety of the American people would be in jeopardy."

HOW ABOUT OTHER THREATS TO THE U.S.?

"If one thinks about the dependency that countries like ours have on cyberspace, that dependency and the extent to which we utilize cyberspace, creates a vulnerability. . . Another thing that concerns me that’s down the road, I hope it’s down the road anyway, and that’s the fact that chemical warfare is worrisome but it tends not to be contagious. Biological warfare can be contagious."

WE SPEND HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON CONVENTIONAL FORCES, WHERE THERE IS NO THREAT, BUT WE COULD USE THOSE FORCES AGAINST A COUNTRY IF WE CLAIM THAT THEY ARE SUPPORTING TERRORISTS

"What they’re going to do is go at us asymmetrically through irregular warfare. For the most part they are better off doing it if they have a network as opposed to a nation state to defend. So the sponsorship by nation states of terrorist organizations is a very effective vehicle, because a terrorist network has no nation to defend, no bureaucracy to defend and no real estate to defend and they can pretty much take advantage of the technological advantages from the West and turn them against the West." IT'S DIFFICULT BUT WE'LL INVADE ANYHOW

"You’ve got terrorists operating in countries that we’re not at war with so the question is how do you defeat people who are functioning in safe havens or ungoverned areas in nations that we’re not at war with. That is a complication that makes our task today considerably more difficult."

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Interview with Mark Davis, 4/11

RUMMY: EL QAEDA IS THE BIGGEST THREAT IN IRAQ

"I think that if someone hit me cold and said describe the enemy in Iraq and narrowed it down to that, I would say it's a combination of the most lethal element being the al-Qaida and the Zarqawi group that are the ones that for the most part are sponsoring the suicide bombers and planning the IEDs, the explosive devices. Second, there is sectarian violence to some degree, where Shia and Sunni are against each other. And third, there are criminals who are hired by one or more of those groups - or operating on their own for profit - who are engaged in creating disorder and attempting to advantage themselves as well. So it's the mixture of that."

BUT LAST NOVEMBER PRESIDENT BUSH SAID THAT ORDINARY IRAQIS WERE THE BIGGEST THREAT

"The enemy in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists. The rejectionists are by far the largest group. These are ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, who miss the privileged status they had under the regime of Saddam Hussein -- and they reject an Iraq in which they are no longer the dominant group."

WHAT ABOUT ALL THESE GENERALS SPEAKING OUT?

"The point is I suppose, it's less than one-tenth of one percent of the generals that exist. And some of them are writing books and they're out peddling their books, I suppose. In the case of Zinni who I've never met that I recall, he was gone and retired before we ever arrived here and he's been opposed, I think, from the beginning. So he's not changed his position. . . But I think it's not surprising that there are going to be people who have different views, or didn't have different views and do now, because it may or may not be convenient."

THIS IRAQ WAR IS TAKING LONGER THAN WWII--WHAT ABOUT THAT?

"I think you have to go back, if you want to talk about World War II, you'd have to go include the post-war stabilization [A COMMON FALSE REFRAIN] period in both Japan and Germany which went on for any number of years, and not just the end of major combat operations in Germany or Japan."

WE HAVE TO CONSIDER THE CENTER OF GRAVITY OF THIS WAR . . .

"The center of gravity of this war is back in the capitals of the Western countries."

THINK BACK TO THE RED MENACE . . .

"What you have is something more akin to the Cold War which went on for 50 years. A situation where there is an enemy that is determined to intimidate and terrorize free people and alter the way they live their lives. And, is able to do it without having to defend a country, without an army, navy or an air force, to do it through irregular and asymmetrical warfare, to have very good success at manipulating the news media around the world, and their hope is to destabilize the moderate Muslim regimes in the Middle East and to reestablish a caliphate across the major belt of the world."

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WARNING: If you're not prepared to see the effects of war, skip this.

. . . to see a dead "terrorist" go here.

. . . to see the killer, go to the top of this page.

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Press Conference with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 4/11/06:

Q: What planning, if any, has the Pentagon been undertaken for the possibility of military action involving Iran? And has the nuclear strike option been ruled out?

RUMSFELD: You know, someone comes up with an idea, runs it in a magazine or a paper; other papers pick it up and reprint it; editorialists, then, say, Oh, Henny Penny, the sky is falling, and opine on this and opine that. --But it is just simply not useful to get into fantasyland.

Press Conference with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 9/22/02:

Q: Sources say the President has a war plan on his desk about attacking Iraq? What types of options were provided to the President?

Rumsfeld: Of course I could and I won’t. I must say I find the people that are talking to the media about war plans are so far out of line and so disgracefully misbehaving that I find it stunning and a weak effort. First of all I can tell you that anyone who knows anything isn’t talking and anyone with any sense isn’t talking therefore the people that are talking to the media by definition people who don’t know anything and people who don’t have a hell of a lot of sense.

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Interview with Sean Hannity (4/7)

LOOK INTO YOUR CRYSTAL BALL, RUMMY--WHAT DO YOU SEE IN IRAQ IN TEN YEARS? ASSUMING WE'RE SUCCESFUL, THAT IS?

"Well, assuming we're successful and the Iraqi people are successful in putting in place a government and placing their confidence in a piece of paper, a constitution, think of that. That's an enormous bet they're going to be making."

WILL IT BE LIKE US? ATTACKING OTHER COUNTRIES?

"What we'll see is we'll see a country that has water, that has oil, that has intelligent people, that has history, and it will be a country that will not be attacking its neighbors."

WILL IT BE FILLING MASS GRAVES AND USING CHEMICALS LIKE US?

"It will not be filling mass graves with hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people. It won't be using chemicals on its own people."

WILL IT BE A WARRING COUNTRY LED BY RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS, LIKE US?

"It will be a country that will be at peace and opposing violent extremists, and I think that that will be a fabulous thing for the world."

THERE WILL BE A DOMINO EFFECT, AND OTHER MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES WILL DEMOCRATIZE, RIGHT RUMMY?

"It is possible."

ISRAEL KEEPS BEATING UP ON THEIR ARAB NEIGHBORS--A GOOD SIGN OF DEMOCRACY

"You know, if you think about it there's one real democracy and that's Israel in the Middle East."

NOW RUMMY MISCHARACTERIZES THE NEW SECTARIAN IRAQ GOVERNMENT

"The Iranians do not want a representative government that is secular and at peace with its neighbors. The Iranians will find that uncomfortable."

MORE FANTASIES OF NATION-BUILDING

"But I think a successful Iraq that is a peaceful country and a representative country that's respectful of all of the various ethnic groups there would be a model that would have an enormous positive impact economically in the country, in the region, I mean."

DO YOU PAY ATTENTION TO CRITICISM?

"I suppose I'm not unaware of it, but in terms of getting up in the morning and agonizing over it and planning my day around it, I just don't. I can't. I've got too many things to do."

BUSH REMINDS RUMMY OF LINCOLN

"You know, if you go back in history, you think of the things that were said about Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It was as abusive as it could be and we survived that."

. . . AND ROOSEVELT

"I was alive during World War II and I think of what was said of Franklin Delano Roosevelt."

. . . AND TRUMAN

"Harry Truman took a lot of heat."

. . . AND JOHNSON WAS AS UNPOPULAR AS BUSH

"When I was in Congress President Johnson was President and he couldn't leave the White House to give a speech. They had to put busses around the White House to keep the demonstrators from coming on the white House grounds. They didn't have those concrete barricades in those days."

JUST THINK IF WE'D GIVEN UP ON THE REVOLUTION

"Think if we had thrown in the towel during the Revolutionary War and said oh, it's too tough, it's too difficult, it's taking too long, it costs too much, we can't do it.

. . . AND WORLD WAR II

"Or World War II. We lost battle after battle after battle in the beginning of World War II."

SPEAKING OF WAR, HOW ABOUT IRAN?

"You know, the President's on a diplomatic track. [REFUSING TO TALK TO IRAN IS DIPLOMATIC, WAR IS PEACE, NIGHT IS DAY, ETC. ETC.] That's his decision and it's the right decision in my view, and all efforts are being made to see that the United Nations engages that subject, and I think it's best to leave it at that."

THIS ENDLESS WAR, IT'S REALLY BETWEEN MUSLIMS AND MUSLIMS, RIGHT?

"It is going to take time because it's a struggle between violent extremists, a relatively small number, and the major Muslim population which is not composed of violent extremists."

AND IT'S NOT REGULAR WARFARE?

"They are going at it asymmetrically, with irregular warfare."

SO NOW IT IS THE U.S. VS. TERRORISTS (ARE YOU FOLLOWING THIS?)

"We're not going to lose a battle in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere in the world against a terrorist network. They operate in the shadows. The task is to put pressure on them all across the world and make everything more difficult for them. Make it harder to raise money, harder to recruit, harder to move weapons, harder to talk to each other. That's what we're doing."

BUT IT'S NOT REALLY A WAR, IT'S A TEST OF WILLS IN BERLIN, PARIS, MADRID, ROME, LONDON AND WASHINGTON

"Now it's a test of wills. If they can't win a battle, where can they win? The only place they can win is in the capitals of Western countries."

BETWEEN TERRORISTS AND FREE PEOPLE

"Well, it is worth the effort because terrorists are against free people behaving as free people. That's the very essence of what America is."

AND, FINALLY, THIS WAR BETWEEN EXTREMIST MUSLIMS AND THE MAJOR MUSLIM POPULATION, I MEAN THE ASYMMETRIC WAR OF THE U.S. VERSUS TERRORISTS, WHICH IS A TEST OF WILLS--HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?

"It could go on for a good many years. The Cold War, no one estimated the Cold War would last 40 or 50 years. It did. How long this will take, I can't say."

RUMMY, DO YOU THINK AMERICANS WILL UNDERSTAND THIS MAD, RAMBLING, NONSENSICAL JIBBERISH?

"I think that most people understand that, so I'm confident about the American people finding, using good judgment about this."

ENDNOTE: THE INCOMPETENCE AND STUPIDITY OF THIS MAN ARE MONUMENTAL. CONSIDER THAT THERE ARE ABOUT HALF A MILLION ARMED MILITARY AND POLICE IN IRAQ (140,000 U.S., 240,000 IRAQI MILITARY, PLUS BRITISH, MERCENARY, AND POLICE FORCES) WHO HAVE PUT THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS, AND WE'RE FIGHTING (AND LOSING TO) "TERRORISTS?" AS BUSH SAID ON NOVEMBER 30TH IN ANNAPOLIS OUR MAJOR ENEMY IS THOSE WHO ARE RESISTING OUR OCCUPATION. IT'S CLEAR THAT THE IRAQIS DON'T WANT US THERE. WHO CAN BLAME THEM? WHAT ABOUT THIS "STRUGGLE BETWEEN VIOLENT EXTREMISTS AND THE MAJOR MUSLIM POPULATION?" IT'S AMAZING TO ME THAT IN A COUNTRY OF INFORMED PEOPLE RUMSFELD'S DISTORTED, INCONSISTENT VIEWS GO VIRTUALLY UNCHALLENGED. I SUPPOSE A PSYCHOLOGIST MIGHT SAY THAT AUTHORIZING MASS KILLING AND TORTURE, AS HE HAS DONE, HAS TWISTED HIS BRAIN INTO A DOCTOR STRANGELOVE SORT OF PSYCOPATH WHO MIGHT SAY (AND DO) ANYTHING.

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Radio Interview with Steve Gill on WTN 99.7, Nashville, TN. 5/5

THERE'S BEEN A LOT OF CRITICISM OF YOUR WARS, RUMMY, WHAT'S WRONG WITH PEOPLE?

"Maybe they don't read history. Anyone whose studied history knows that every battle plan never survives first contact with the enemy, because the enemy has a brain and the enemy watches what's going to happen and makes adjustments just as we watch what's going to happen and make adjustments."

DO YOU SUPPOSE SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO PROFIT FROM WAR?

"I suppose the other reason; a lot of those folks are trying to peddle books they've written."

LIKE GENERAL ZINNI, FOR EXAMPLE, WHO SAID YOU SHOULD BE SACKED FOR KILLING TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE FOR NOTHING?

"I guess so. You know, you think about it, there's 25 million Iraqis who were repressed and filing up mass graves with hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens and today they're liberated. That's important."

AND YOU CAN SAY (UNTRUTHFULLY) THAT WE WERE ON A UNITED NATIONS MISSION

"Second, if you think about it there was something like 15 or 17 UN resolutions. That took a lot of patience for the world to watch Iraq thumb their nose at the United Nations over a sustained period of many years and some 17 resolutions."

DON'T FORGET THE NO-FLY ZONE THAT WE INSTITUTED UNILATERALLY WITH OUR BRITISH PUPPETS

"Third, our airplanes, and British airplanes, were being fired at every week in the Southern No Fly Zone and the Northern No Fly Zone."

IRAQ WAS NO PAPER TIGER, I CAN TELL YOU THAT

"Anyone who thinks that Saddam Hussein was successfully contained really hasn't read what was going on in the United Nations in terms of the Oil for Food program, which as we've seen, had enormous leaks in it as well as probably wrongdoing."

WE NEEDED A LOT OF HELP FROM THE POLES AND EL SALVADORANS TO PULL THIS OFF

"President Bush has fashioned a coalition of some 80-85 countries. It's probably the largest coalition in the history of mankind."

LESSONS LEARNED: TURKEY HAD A PROBLEM WITH DEMOCRACY THAT WE DIDN'T

"I think it would have been enormously helpful if we had been successful in getting the 4th Infantry Division in through Turkey. If you think about it, they would have come down from the north, that was the plan, and the Turkish parliament at the last minute by one or two votes were not able to approve it. The result was that we did not have an extremely effective division coming down from the north right into the Sunni heartland that would have been the case had the Turkish parliament approved it."

BUT OUR CONGRESS ISN'T PERFECT EITHER, IT LIKES WAR BUT NOT FOREIGN AID

"It seems to me that what we're dealing with today is the reality that our government and our Congress are not really organized effectively to build partner nation capabilities."

WE NEED A LOT MORE MONEY THAN WE'VE BEEN GETTING

"We can sustain financially five or six or seven or eight Afghan or Iraqi soldiers for the expense of one of ours, and yet we have a terrible time getting approval through the Congress to use some of the funds to develop the capacity, the military capability on the part of the local Afghan and the local Iraqi people."

FORGET GOVERNMENT DEATH SQUADS, "ZARQAWI" HAS TRIED TO INCITE A CIVIL WAR

"They've certainly done a lot to try to do that. The attack on the Golden Dome shrine, for example, and the efforts to incite sectarian violence; they've caused a number of Iraqis to die, but they have not been successful in causing a civil war. And that's a good thing."

OUR TROOPS ARE DEFENDING OUR FREEDOM, RIGHT?

"They're all volunteers. They're people who put up their hand and said send me. I want to serve my country. I want to defend freedom. And thanks to them we're fighting terrorism overseas instead of here at home. And the American people are safer every day because of them."

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radio interview with Scott Hennen, 4/4

RUMMY, YOU RECENTLY EULOGIZED FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE CASPAR WEINBERGER

In that eulogy you talked about a quote from Winston Churchill that hung in Cap Weinberger's office that said, "Never give in; never give in, never, never, never, never in nothing great or small, large or petty. Never give in."

"It's a wonderful thought and of course that was Winston Churchill's life. He cautioned the world about the coming Nazi menace in Adolf Hitler. They didn't listen for years and years and years and he never changed. He always believed it was a danger, he was right. And I'll tell you, former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger had that same quality. He had steel up his back."

GOOD MOTTO, EH?

"You're certainly right.

BECAUSE NOTHING'S CHANGED?

"This is a different world we're in today. It's unconventional instead of conventional; it's asymmetric instead of symmetric; it's irregular instead of regular; and it is so different for us that we need to get adjusted to it in this new century and learn to fight this battle as effectively as we were successful with respect to the Cold War."

HOW DID IT USED TO BE?

"You know if you think about it normally one thinks of a war or a conflict of big armies and navies and air forces competing against each other. That's been the history. But that is something that is not taking place today."

WHAT'S IT LIKE NOW? COULD THERE POSSIBLY BE A THREAT BY A WORLD-WIDE CALIPHATE?

"We're up against networks of people who operate in the shadows, who don't have nations to defend, who don't have bureaucracies to manage, people who are determined to reestablish a caliphate in this world and to take out moderate governments and to change the lives of free people."

BUT WE'VE GOT ALL THOSE HUGE EXPENSIVE SHIPS, LIKE TEN NUCLEAR-POWERD AIRCRAFT CARRIERS EACH LONGER THAN THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, WE CAN STILL USE THEM FOR SOMETHING, RIGHT RUMMY?

"There's not going to be any signing ceremony on the USS Missouri as there was to end the war with Japan."

THEN ARE WE GOING TO USE A GLOBAL NEWTWORK THAT EMPEROR BUSH PUT TOGETHER?

"These are people who are going to have to be dealt with over a sustained period of time by the global network that President Bush has put together of some 80 or 85 nations."

RUMMY, ARE AMERICANS SMART ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND ALL THIS BS?

"No, I think it's hard. I think it's hard for people to understand it. They understood September 11th, they saw what happened in London, they saw what happened in Madrid, they've seen what's happened in Oman, Jordan and other countries, and they understand terrorism, but the tendency is for people to think of terrorism as an act of violence that is designed to kill people when in fact the purpose of terrorism is not to kill people. The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. It's to alter people's behavior."

WE DIDN'T GO INTO IRAQ TO KILL IRAQIS, BUT TO INTIMIDATE AMERICANS?

"So a terrorist really strikes at the very essence of what the American people are - namely free people. People who can get up in the morning and go where they wish and say what they wish and do what they wish and not be intimidated, and not be terrorized and not alter their behavior, because they have enemies that would like to alter their behavior."

DO WE HAVE TO STAY IN IRAQ?

"Oh, my goodness. The thought of turning over Iraq to the terrorists, to the people who behead their fellow citizens on television like Zarqawi, to people - the Saddam Hussein types who put hundreds of thousands of human beings into mass graves, the people who use chemicals against their neighbors and their own people."

NOTE: ZARQAWI HAS BEEN DEAD AT LEAST TWO YEARS, BUT THAT HASN'T SLOWED HIM UP AT ALL IN RUMMY'S TWISTED MIND.

DON'T FORGET THE OIL AND WATER!!

"The thought of turning over an oil-rich, water-rich nation . . ."

AND DON'T FORGET EL-QAEDA THAT, THANKS TO YOU, IS NOW IN IRAQ

. . ."to the likes of Zarqawi and the al-Qaeda and the Saddamists would put them in a position to threaten the entire Middle East and to threaten the rest of the free world."

BUT CONTINUING A FAILED POLICY IS REALLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN PEOPLE'S LIVES AND HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, RIGHT RUMMY?

"The real test of wills that's taking place - the battle's here in the United States, it's in the capitols of Western Europe. It's in the capitols of free nations. Because the enemy wants to wait us out. The enemy wants to see us lose our will. The enemy believes that that is the way that they will achieve their success; by having people decide that it costs too much in lives, it costs too much in dollars, it's taking too long, and therefore we should forget it and hope they'll just go away."

AND HOW ABOUT THOSE COOL ELECTIONS WHICH PRODUCED A PRIME MINISTER THAT WE HAVE ASKED TO STEP DOWN

"Well you know if you think about it, the terrorists tried to stop the elections a year ago January and they failed; they tried to stop the drafting of an Iraqi constitution by the Iraqi people and they failed; the terrorists tried to stop the Iraqi elections on December 15th of last year and they failed; they're trying now to stop the formation of a new government and they're going to fail at that as well."

THERE ARE ALWAYS SOME LOSERS WHO WANT TO STOP A WAR

"There have always been people throughout history in every war, starting with the Revolutionary War in the United States, who were against the war, who wanted to throw in the towel, who said we can't win it; it's too hard; it’ll take too long."

WAR IS THE HEALTH OF THE NATION

"Think of where our country would be if we had tossed in the towel in the Revolutionary War or the Civil War or World War II or World War I. We wouldn't have the country we have."

WE HAVE TO PUT UP WITH ANTI-WAR TALK

"And it doesn't surprise me that there's a debate, that's understandable. There's always been that kind of a debate."

BUT IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THE PEOPLE SAY--WE APPOINTEES KNOW BEST

"But I’ve got a lot of confidence in the good center of gravity of the American people. And while I'm well aware that polls go up and polls go down, the fact of the matter is we're going to win this test of wills. We have to win the test of wills if we want to stay free people."

FINALLY, CONDI RICE SAID WE'VE MADE THOUSANDS OF MISTAKES

"I don't know what she was talking about, to be perfectly honest."

ACTUALLY IT'S MILLIONS, RUMMY, BECAUSE SHE FORGOT TO INCLUDE YOURS.

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radio interview with Lars Larson, 4/4

THERE ARE BODIES IN BAGHDAD EVERY MORNING--IS THAT A SIGN OF TERRORISM OR ANTI-TERRORISM?

"Well, it's probably a mixture of those two things plus crime."

IT'S KIND OF LIKE THE UNITED STATES

"You think of the number of people, homicides that occur in the United States every week."

THOSE ARABS (LIKE US?) ARE JUST VIOLENT PEOPLE

" And, it is a part of the world that has been violent in the past, is likely to be violent in the future."

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M Kane Jeeves says there ARE a lot of good news stories to be reported in Iraq:

The Iraqi real estate market, for instance, is literally booming with many craters going for as little as two chickens and a goat.

Work on the theme park Depleted UraniumLand is near completion with most of the rides not exactly hair-raising as opposed to hair-losing.

The opening of the George W. Bush Freedom High School has been delayed, unfortunately, because of a problem with textbook quizzes. No matter what the subject, all the answers read: "9/11."

The first Fallujah Barbecue Jamboree was held, with citizens providing the livestock and the U.S. military dropping in with tons of white phosphorous and MK-77 firebombs. You haven’t tasted beef until it’s been liquefied. Yummm.

The first Iraqi "Iron Man" competition, held at Abu Ghraib, is ready to take off. The winner gets a pardon and complimentary medical treatment.

The Najaf 500 was recently held, based on the Indy 500. The winner was the car that didn’t blow-up.

The Little Theater of Baghdad Theater troupe staged their production of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s "Kidnapped." It was considered a great success until it was noted, by play’s end, a third of the audience had gone missing.

A new, U.S.-sponsored Iraqi TV network, Al-Bizarro, made it’s debut, offering such quiz shows as "Truth or Consequences," "Jeopardy" and a revival of Groucho Marx’s golden-oldie "You Bet Your Life."

An Iraqi version of the American TV show Extreme Makeover also premiered, with players watching their existing homes vaporized by U.S. bombs and, then, envisioning their new home with no money nor tools to build it.

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Rumsfeld's Roadmap to Propaganda describes how propaganda dessiminated in foreign news sources will come back to Americans in our "global village."

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Enjoy the poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, set to music

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News briefing, 3/28

REPORTERS SAY THAT THE RUSSIANS OBTAINED INFORMATION AND PASSED IT TO IRAQ--HOW ABOUT IT, RUMMY?

. . . "the idea that we're supposed to know what's going to be in every single document or report that comes out of this department is obviously -- it doesn't quite appreciate the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of reports that are put out."

WITH ALL YOUR CONCERN ABOUT COMMUNICATING, SHOULDN'T YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD?

" Oh, I'm not going to criticize somebody for not calling it to my attention previously. We'll sort through it."

CENTCOM (Central Command--runs the war) SAID THEY HAVE NO PLANS TO INVESTIGATE

"Who at CENTCOM said that?"

THE CENTCOM SPOKESPERSON SAID THAT

"I don't know. I didn't see that."

BUT THIS IS SERIOUS, SHOULDN'T YOU INVESTIGATE?

"There are people in the department who have the responsibility for looking into things like that."

DO YOU THINK IT SHOULD BE LOOKED INTO?

"If it should be, it will."

AGAIN, DO YOU THINK IT SHOULD BE?

"I'd have to go back and read it carefully and see what credence one ought to give to it and see what we may have discovered through other channels, and then make a decision."

NEW SUBJECT: THE IRAQIS HAD AN ELECTION IN DECEMBER, AND HERE MARCH IS ALMOST OVER, AND THEY HAVEN'T FORMED A GOVERNMENT YET--DO YOU HAVE ANY ORDERS FOR YOUR COLLABORATORS?

"It's important that the key political figures in that country recognize that 10 or 12 million Iraqis went out and voted, and it's their responsibility to fashion a government under that successful vote, December 15th, under their new constitution, which was ratified October 15th, and come forward to the parliament with their proposals. And the sooner they do it, the better."

YESTERDAY AT THE WAR COLLEGE YOU GAVE THE U.S. A "D" IN COMMUNICATING--HOW DO YOU FIX IT?

"It's a very tough thing to do. When something happens, the people we're up against are vicious, and they lie."

IN OTHER WORDS, THEY DO WHAT WE DO, FASTER

. . . "they have media committees, they plan what they're going to do, they plan how they're going to manipulate the press, and they get out there fast and do it."

AND SINCE WE'RE NOT THE BRIGHTEST LIGHTS IN TOWN, IT TAKES US WEEKS

. . . "it takes weeks to figure out what actually took place."

THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS TO COMMUNICATE, IT MAKES IT TOUGH, KNOW WHAT I MEAN?

. . . "here we are, in the 21st century, with all these means of communication and information racing around the globe, and it just makes it a very tough thing to do."

THEY'RE FAST AND SMART, WE'RE SLOW AND STUPID, WHAT CAN I SAY?

"And clearly the United states government has not gotten to the point where we are as deft and clever and facile and quick as the enemy."

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Rumsfeld at the Army War College, 3/27

HOW ARE WE DOING IN THE WAR OF IDEOLOGY?

"If I were rating, I would say we probably deserve a D or D+ as a country as how well we're doing in the battle of ideas that's taking place. I'm not going to suggest that it's easy, but we have not found the formula as a country."

IT'S NOT BETWEEN US AND THEM, RIGHT? NOT A 'WAR ON TERROR,' RIGHT?

"It's basically a struggle not between the West and Muslims. It's a struggle within the Muslim faith. There are a relatively small number of violent extremists and a very large number of moderates who do not believe in violent extremism in that faith."

WE ARE JUST HELPERS--GENEROUS AND TOLERANT AND ACCEPTING, BUT FAR FROM PERFECT

". . . this is a wonderful country, the United States of America. The American people are enormously generous. And we are tolerant as a country. We accept diversity and differences. We're far from perfect."

UNFORTUNATELY WE'RE MISUNDERSTOOD, AND PEOPLE LEAN

"But the image that the United States has in the world as a result of the characterizations by others is unfortunate. And when people are leaning toward you, as you all know, things are easy. When people are leaning away from you, things are much more difficult."

WE'RE TRYING THE WAR THING AGAIN, BUT THERE'S A LOT OF NEW STUFF

"We're conducting a war today that for the first time in the history of the world, in the 21st century, where with all of these new realities -- video cameras and digital cameras and 24 hour talk shows and bloggers and the internet and e-mails and all of these things that have changed how people communicate."

WE TRIED TO SPIN DESTRUCTION, DEATH AND TORTURE BUT--

"Every time the United States tries to do anything that would communicate something positive about what we're doing in the world we're criticized in the press and in the Congress, and we have a reappraisal and say oh, my goodness, is that something we should be doing?"

WE CAN'T GET ANY RESPECT!

"How do we do it in a way that is considered acceptable in our society?"

GENERAL CASEY PAID FOR NEWS IN IRAQ

. . . "some folks out in Iraq working for General Casey hired a contractor and they wanted to get some truth out -- true stories, not inaccurate stories, not disinformation, but true stories"

an example of "true stories": In conjunction with operation El-Sitar Elfulathi in Husaybah and Karabilah, Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) are sweeping across Iraq in a series of continuous operations aimed at disrupting insurgent activity. Through diligent patrols, organised raids and searches, vehicle checkpoints and interaction with the Iraqi people, Iraqi Army (IA) units have taken down terror cells and removed dangerous criminals from Iraq's streets.[The "Iraqi Army" is a farce]

another example: The chief murderer of al-Qa'ida in Iraq has declared war against all Iraqis. They have also lamely attempted to justify the murder of civilians. Some websites featured the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's praise of his heathen deeds. The people of Iraq have had enough.[President Bush has said, and it's true, that our main enemy are the Sunnis, who are resisting our occupation. It's also true that the Iraqis' main enemy are the government death squads, not al Qaeda.]

Go here for more.

AND THIS PROPAGANDA GOT PRINTED AS NEWS

. . . "the contractor apparently paid some newspapers to run, without putting the word advertisement on it. It was the truth."

SO THERE WAS A BIG FUSS

"But the fuss and the concern in the country has just been a frenzy over it, so we're having an investigation."

AND WHO BETTER TO INVESTIGATE THAN--GENERAL CASEY, OF COURSE!!

"General Casey ran an investigation of it. He's now going to send it back and I'll look at it and we'll have to figure out whether that's something we ought to do."

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from a 3/23 press conference

"In the years since September 11th, no part of the world has been spared the brutality of the terrorists: London, Madrid, Casablanca, to name a few."

KABUL, BAGHDAD AND FALLUJAH TO NAME A FEW MORE LARGER CASES

"Imagine what the beheaders and the hostage-takers would do, were they to accomplish their goal of establishing a safe haven in Iraq,"

WOULD THEY SHOOT, DETAIN, TORTURE AND BOMB?

"how a victory for them would aid their cause, their efforts to raise money and their recruiting efforts."

THEY ARE RAISING PLENTY OF MONEY AND RECRUITS NOW--THERE'S NO END IN SIGHT

"But this enemy seeks no armistice with free people. They've called America an enemy of God."

LET'S BRING GOD INTO IT--BUT NOT THE SAME ONE THAT TOLD BUSH TO INVADE AND OCCUPY

"They have said of Americans and Europeans, quote, 'Their wives will be widowed and their children will be orphaned,' unquote, and that, quote, 'jihad against the United States does not stop with its withdrawal from the Arabian peninsula,' unquote."

NO, THERE'S THE LITTLE MATTER OF US SUPPORTING ISRAELI TERRORISM

"The question of our time is whether we face this enemy on their terms or on our terms, on their territory or on our territory, where they are on offense or where they are on defense."

WE WILL ALWAYS ATTACK FIRST--THAT'S WHAT A DEFENSE DEPARTMENT SHOULD DO

"Not too long ago a Guardsman wounded in Iraq said about September 11th, quote, 'The longer it goes since it happened, the less people seem to think about it. I think about it every day,' he said."

THE MILITARY HAS BEEN BRAINWASHED TO TIE 9/11 TO IRAQ--A "CONNECTION" THAT BUSH RECENTLY DENIED EVER MENTIONING

"Not a day passes that this department -- when we're not considering if everything possible has been done to safeguard our nation and our people."

THINGS AREN'T GOING SO WELL, SO EVERY DAY WE CONSIDER--

"Not a day passes when we do not think and pray for the men and women wearing the uniform."

AND PRAY--

"We ask our commanders on the ground at every opportunity if there's something we ought to be doing differently, or if there's a new threat that we need to combat."

AND ASK OUR COMMANDERS, WHO ASK THE TROOPS, WHO . . .YEAH, RIGHT

"In our 200-plus years, America has learned some important lessons. One is that weakness is provocative -- it tempts aggressors"

AH--NAME ONE INSTANCE OF WHEN THE U.S. WAS ATTACKED BECAUSE WE HAD A WEAK MILITARY

"And surely we can relate to what President Roosevelt said two days after Pearl Harbor. He said, quote, "We are now in this war. We are all in it all the way. We must share together the bad news and the good news, the defeats and the victories, the changing fortunes of war."

OH--PEARL HARBOR--WERE WE WEAK? OR STUPID? OR INTENTIONALLY GETTING INTO A WAR?

"Today as well, we can prevail only if we are in it all the way. We can, we must, and we will see it through to completion, the mission for which these young Americans and their families have sacrificed,"

TOTAL WAR FOR--LET'S SEE NOW--WHAT WAS THAT NOBLE CAUSE? DEFENDING AN ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT?

"carrying with us the memory of those who have lost their lives in the battle, in the twin towers of the World Trade Center, here in this building where we sit today, or in a quiet field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania."

I'LL WIND THIS UP WITH ANOTHER TIE-IN TO 9/11--THAT ALWAYS WORKS [RUMMY'S GOING TO SHANKSVILLE FOR A PHOTO-OP]

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MIGHT RUMMY RETIRE, SINCE HE'S BEEN AN ABJECT FAILURE?

"No, I'm hard at the job, working hard, and getting up every day and thinking what we can do for the troops and the wonderful people who serve our country."[OH, HE IS THINKING OF RETIREMENT]

THIS IRAQ THING MAY GO ON THREE MORE YEARS

"It would take a lot of time. I mean, we may be helping to train and equip some forces in Iraq in 2009."

PLEASE STOP ASKING ME HOW LONG WE'LL BE IN IRAQ

"Jim, I don't know how many times I have to answer this. The level of the forces -- we'll try it one more time. All together: The level of the forces in Iraq will depend on the conditions on the ground and the recommendations of the commander. And if you can predict precisely what the conditions on the ground will be and what the recommendations of the commander will be, I can tell you precisely what the trajectory, up or down or level, might be of those troops."

I'LL TELL YOU WHAT I TOLD YOU ALMOST THREE YEARS AGO--

"We anticipate that they'll go down. And the reason we anticipate they'll go down is because we think the government will be formed and it will meet with reasonable acceptance and that the Iraqi security forces will continue to be performing well and that we will continue to pass over battle space, bases and responsibility to the Iraqi security forces."

LET'S TALK ABOUT MY FAVORITE SUBJECT--WAR--EACH ONE'S DIFFERENT--ISN'T THAT INTERESTING?

"World War II had characteristics that were so notably different than this. But that's been true of most of the wars, that they've been different. And I've been alive for a number of them."[HE'S A SURVIVOR, UNLIKE THE PEOPLE HE'S KILLED WITH HIS WARS]

PEOPLE WHO REJECT OUR BRUTAL INVASIONS AND OCCUPATION--THEY'RE VIOLENT EXTREMISTS

Clearly, it is a different thing for people to internalize this thing called the global war on terror or the struggle that's taking place in the world between violent extremists and people who don't believe in their view of the world."

BUT OUR PROPAGANDA HAS WORKED ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

"I think that the American people do feel an anxiety about the problem of terrorism."[IT DOES WONDERS FOR THE DEFENSE BUDGET]

LET'S TALK 9/11 AGAIN--THAT ALWAYS WORKS

"They understand the fact that so many cities have been hit, and they recognize that 3,000 people were killed here in this country, but that it is a more distant thing and a less immediate conflict or struggle than some previous wars."

NOTE: ASK RUMMY ABOUT U.S. WAR CASUALTIES AND HE ALWAYS MINIMIZES THEM, COMPARING THEM TO DOMESTIC HOMICIDES AND TRAFFIC ACCIDENT VICTIMS. ASK RUMMY ABOUT KILLING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AND SPENDING HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON STUPID ILLEGAL WARS AND HE COMPARES IT TO THE 3,000 9/11 VICTIMS. LOGICAL?

NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT CONTINUING WITH THIS FIASCO EVEN THOUGH THE PEOPLE SAY "STOP"

"if every time a poll went down, somebody changed their policy or changed their position or tossed in the towel, we wouldn't have a country today. There have been plenty of times polls have down in our history when people have persevered and been resolute and prevailed ultimately. [LIKE VIETNAM?] And that's what will happen in this instance."

I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE NUMBER OF WOUNDED SOLDIERS IN IRAQ

I haven't seen any analytical work on it. I know that our field commanders are spending a great deal of effort to try to adjust tactics, techniques and procedures to the circumstance on the ground.

WANT A CLUE AS TO HOW LONG WE'LL BE IN CHARGE IN IRAQ? LOOK AT SOUTH KOREA AFTER 55 YEARS

"Everyone agrees that 55 years after the war, it's reasonable that the South Korean forces would increasingly take on more and more responsibility.

SO WE CAN START THIS YEAR TO HAND MILITARY CONTROL OVER TO THE SOUTH KOREANS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY?

"No, no. I don't at all."

WE'LL TELL THOSE UPPITY KOREANS WHEN THEY CAN GAIN CONTROL

"The discussions I've had with the Korean minister, and the cable traffic I've seen, is that they want the subject raised, which we do too; we think that's just fine, and then we'd set about a path to see that the South Korean military evolves into a position where it would be appropriate for them to have that control."

WE WILL DETERMINE WHEN WE STOP DEFENDING THEIR HYUNDAI AND KIA AUTO PLANTS WHICH ARE SHUTTING DOWN GENERAL MOTORS

"what period of time that might be is not something that's been determined, because it's partly a function of the pace at which the South Korean government is going to be able to investments(sic) and increase their capabilities in a way that they could assume that responsibility."

IRAN IS A LOGICAL TARGET IN OUR "GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR" BECAUSE OF HEZBOLLAH (I WORRY ABOUT THE HEZBOLLAHISTS, DON'T YOU?)

"With respect to Iran, we know that Iran is the major sponsor of Hezbollah, and -- a active terrorist organization and a very well-known one, and that that has been their path and one of the instruments that they've used consistently."

THERE'S AN IRAQ "LESSONS LEARNED" REPORT COMING OUT--WILL IT INCLUDE ANY MISCALCULATIONS ON OUR PART?

"It's fascinating, there's no interest as to whether they made any glaring miscalculations. Isn't that an interesting phenomenon?"

NOPE, WE DON'T CARE-- SO WHAT'S THE POINT?

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ON THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRAQ INVASON AND OCCUPATION, LET'S FLASHBACK

LEST WE FORGET: RUMSFELD'S SHORT WAR, FEBRUARY 7, 2003:

"And it is not knowable if force will be used, but if it is to be used, it is not knowable how long that conflict would last. It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

LEST WE FORGET, ON MARCH 30, 2003 RUMSFELD KNEW WHERE THE WMDS WERE:

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

LEST WE FORGET, ON MAY 1, 2003 BUSH STOOD IN FRONT OF A "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" BANNER:

"Thank you all very much. Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. (Applause.) And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country."

AND WHO CAN FORGET EL MACHO AWOL-FROM-THE-AIR-NATIONAL-GUARD BUSH'S "BRING 'EM ON," JULY 2, 2003:

"There are some who feel like -- that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring them on. We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation."

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THE MARCH 19TH WASHINGTON POST FEATURED TWO STORIES THAT OFFER TWO DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS OF IRAQ

First, the views of Rumsfeld: "The rationale for a free and democratic Iraq is as compelling today as it was three years ago."

And from a Baghdad blogger, Zeyad: "Iraqis have lost all hopes for any real justice in this god-awful country. People here have long been accustomed to taking justice into their own hands -- or forgetting it altogether. That is one thing that hasn't changed much."

Rumseld: "Consider that in three years Iraq has gone from enduring a brutal dictatorship to electing a provisional government to ratifying a new constitution written by Iraqis to electing a permanent government last December."

Zeyad: "The new parliament was sworn in today. Our bickering politicians agreed to disagree yet again, and this time it was over the oath."

Rumsfeld: "Another significant transformation has been in the size, capability and responsibility of Iraqi security forces. And this is vitally important, because it is Iraqis, after all, who must build and secure their own nation."

Zeyad: "It's almost 9 p.m., a dangerous time to go outside. Neighborhood watch teams -- young men brandishing AK-47s, pistols, RPGs and even sniper rifles -- set up checkpoints around this time. Many were referred to as the "Mujahideen" or insurgents in the past. Now, they are considered defenders of our predominantly Sunni district against Shiite death squads and militias."

Rumsfeld: "Iraqi security forces have a greater ability than coalition troops to detect a foreign terrorist's accent, identify local suspects and use force without increasing a feeling of occupation."

Zeyad: "But sometimes they stop us, inquire about our destination, or they ask for our IDs. I stopped carrying mine some time ago; it gave out too much information, such as tribal, regional and sectarian background. You never know when you might end up at the wrong checkpoint. I just use my neutral work ID now."

Rumsfeld: "And they are risking their lives every day to secure their country."

Zeyad: "His room has a better view, but it's not wise to stick one's head out of a window when Americans are nearby. The street was dark enough, but everyone knows they have night vision goggles. A sniper bullet in the head is not a fun prospect so I lay low and tried to listen."

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FROM THE SAME WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE:

Rumsfeld: "Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis."

But two former Secretaries of State disagree:

Henry Kissinger: "In Germany, the opposition was completely crushed; there was no significant resistance movement."

Zbigniew Brzezinski: "That is really absolutely crazy to anyone who knows history. There was no alternative to our presence. The Germans were totally crushed. For Secretary Rumsfeld to be talking this way suggests either he doesn't know history or he's simply demagoguing."

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IN A NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED PIECE THE SAME DAY:

Paul Eaton, a former US Army Major General who was in charge of training Iraqi troops until 2004, yesterday called for Mr Rumsfeld to be sacked. "He has shown himself incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq."

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NEWS ITEM: RUMMY'S FORMER HORSE-HOLDER AND YES-MAN RICHARD MYERS GOES THROUGH THE PENTAGON/CORPORATE REVOLVING DOOR TO SUGAR CITY

Former top U.S. general gets $200,000-a-year board gig

Recently retired Gen. Richard Myers, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who led the Pentagon into war with Iraq, hasn't stayed out of work long. Northrop Grumman, one of the nation's largest and best-known defense firms, announced Wednesday that Myers, an Air Force veteran and former fighter pilot, has joined its board of directors.

As one of 11 "non-employee" directors, Myers will earn $200,000 a year, according to a company spokesman. Half of that sum is paid to the company's 12 directors in stock. The company will hold eight scheduled board meetings this year, two of which are conducted by phone. The Pentagon's former top general will also serve on the Northrop Grumman board's Compliance, Public Issues and Policy committee, a job that will undoubtedly make good use of his Washington experience.

"Dick Myers brings to our board outstanding leadership credentials and a deep understanding of the national security challenges facing our country today," company chairman and chief executive officer Ronald D. Sugar said in a statement. "He will be an excellent addition to our board and we look forward to benefiting from his contributions."

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/03/former_top_us_g.html

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photographs of detainee abuse authorized by Head Torturer Rumsfeld.

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RUMMY SAYS WE'RE FIGHTING TERRORISTS IN IRAQ:

"Our coalition is fighting terrorists in Iraq so we do not have to fight the terrorists here at home."

BUT IN NOVEMBER BUSH SAID THE REJECTIONISTS ARE THE MAIN ENEMY:

"The enemy in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists. The rejectionists are by far the largest group. These are ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, who miss the privileged status they had under the regime of Saddam Hussein. . . .The second group that makes up the enemy in Iraq is smaller but more determined. It contains former regime loyalists who held positions of power under Saddam Hussein, people who still harbor dreams of returning to power. . . The third group is the smallest but the most lethal: the terrorists affiliated with or inspired by Al Qaida."

SO PERHAPS WE NEED A GLOBAL WAR ON REJECTION??

RUMMY SAYS IT'S OKAY TO ASK QUESTIONS AFTER THREE YEARS, A HUNDRED THOUSAND DEATHS, AND A QUARTER OF A TRILLION DOLLARS:

"Three years into the operation in Iraq, I recognize that well- meaning people can ask, "Why is it important that we complete the mission?"

IRAQ'S JUST LIKE THOSE OTHER COUNTRIES WHERE WE STILL HAVE TROOPS:

"Germany and Japan would not be democratic allies, and the Republic of Korea would most certainly not be an important ally in Asia and the 12th-largest economy in the world."

RUMMY:THANKS TO A LAZY PRESS I'VE NOT BEEN ASKED STICKY QUESTIONS ABOUT WAR AND TORTURE AND STUFF:

"Now today is an opportunity to talk a bit about one very special reporter, who even I have to admit almost always gets it right -- or about right. And who exemplifies the various -- very highest standards of integrity and professionalism, the dean of the Pentagon press corps, Charlie Aldinger of Reuters."

RUMMY GETS ALL CHOKED UP--WHY CAN'T AL JAZEERAH PARROT THE PENTAGON LINE LIKE CHARLIE?

"Now, when I heard Charlie was retiring, my first thought was, "He's too young. It's a very bad precedent, and I don't like it at all." But when you've had the career that Charlie has, covering seven secretaries of Defense -- count them -- amazing -- and working in the Pentagon for some 22 years -- two-plus decades is a long time. I -- even I have to agree that he deserves at least a break. Charlie, we thank you for your professional reporting -- indeed, for your service to Reuters and to the truth. And we wish you and your dear wife Meg, who's here -- where's Meg? There she is -- the very best in the many years to come. Congratulations."

RUMMY SAYS THAT IRAN IS UNHAPPY THAT THEIR ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST FRIENDS HAVE TAKEN OVER IRAQ. YEAH, RIGHT. THEY'RE ALL BROKE UP ABOUT THE MULLAHS TAKING OVER IRAQ, INSTEAD OF RUMMY'S CHALABI.

"It think it has been clearly expressed by the Iranian government that they're not enamored of the idea of a representative sectarian government in their neighboring country. They have different wishes for how Iran -- how Iraq might turn out. So clearly they are not on the side of those forces in the country that are eager to see that government come together and govern from the center and function in a manner that's respectful of all elements in Iraq, in a representative system, with a constitution that they've fashioned themselves, because that is so fundamentally contrary to the system that exists in Iran."

THE IRAQI "GOVERNMENT" JUST TOLD US TO BUTT OUT--WHAT DID OUR AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD HAVE TO SAY?

"All he said was -- you know, he's working day and night and attempting to calibrate his involvement in a way that is appropriate. And he is constantly being sought out by the various elements asking him if he could be helpful with one of the other elements, as they go through their politicking and negotiating."

OUR IRAQI PUPPETS ARE TALKING TO EACH OTHER--AREN'T THEY GOOD.

"I guess the one thing I could say is that he felt that today in Iraq in large measure they were dealing with each other, which he found encouraging, as opposed to more leaning on him to talk to somebody else; that the principal players I think have looked at the situation, recognizes the importance of what they're required to do, what they need to do for the success of that country, and have gone about the business together of doing it."

THERE'S LIGHT AT THE END OF THE PUPPET TUNNEL

"I came away from the conversation with Zal with the feeling that he was encouraged because they were leaning less on him and more on themselves in their discussions and negotiations with each other, which I think is an encouraging sight."

BUT HOW ABOUT ALL THOSE BODIES IN THE STREETS? HOW DO YOU BALANCE THAT WITH THE GOOD NEWS OF THE PUPPET TALKS?

"I don't. We do. You do. I do. The country. We all look at it and make a judgment, and you asked me about the conversation with Zal. I gave you an accurate characterization. And it is not to say that there are not -- is not violence in the country."

DON'T EVER BRING UP DEATH AGAIN--I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.

"There is violence in the country, and if every time I answer every single question I've got to box the compass, we're never going to get anywhere."

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SECTARIAN VIOLENCE AND CIVIL WAR?

"You know, it's a good question, and we have been trying to look for a way to characterize what are the ingredients of a civil war, and how would you know if there was one, and what would it look like, and what might be its progression, either up to increased violence or down to less violence. And it's a hard thing to do, and people are analyzing that and thinking about it. And I think until I've had a chance to think more about it and -- I will say, I don't think it'll look like the United States' civil war."

IS A CIVIL WAR COMING IN IRAQ?

"Oh, I wouldn't want to say that. I just -- it seems to me that -- look, we'll all know more. The next day we learn more.

TIME TO BRING UP THE CONSTITUTION AGAIN--NO, NOT OURS THAT WE DISREGARD-- THEIRS

"I think once people get comfortable with the constitution and with the government reflecting that constitution, that that should have a beneficial effect. Can I prove it? No. Will we know soon? You bet. And is that soon enough for me? Yes."

RUMMY, YOU'VE ASKED FOR PATIENCE FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. HOW LONG IS THIS THE US GOING TO BE FIGHTING IN IRAQ?

"The -- we know that insurgencies can last five, eight, 10, 12, 15 years, and we've said that.

RUMMY HOPES NOBODY REMEMBERS THAT DISASTEROUS DUST-UP IN VIETNAM

"We also know that insurgencies ultimately are defeated, not by foreign occupying forces but by the indigenous forces of that particular country. And that'll be the case in Iraq."

BESIDES, IT HURTS RUMMY'S BRAIN TO EVEN THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE, AND THE HEAD TORTURER WOULDN'T WANT TO EMBARRASS HIMSELF OR ANYTHING

"Now if anyone in the world was smart enough to know precisely what the behavior of Iran, what the behavior of Syria, what the level of the insurgency would be; how fast they'll get a government; how confident the people will be in the new government, then one could probably draw a line and say, "Gee, the trajectory of our troop reduction ought to be about like this." But I don't know anyone that's smart enough to do that. There's just too many variables, and if you try to do it, all you do is embarrass yourself. And you know, life's embarrassing enough without trying that.

AND LET'S NOT TALK ABOUT 87 DEAD IRAQIS. IT COULD BE 86 OR 88, WHO KNOWS, OR CARES, AND IT'S JUST TOO FAR AWAY ANYHOW

"So, to pretend that somebody can sit 7,000 miles away -- Seven thousand miles. Plus or minus -- and know which numbers of those 87 people that -- I don't even know the number is 87. I know the report says 87, but I don't know that that's true, either. Nor, do I suspect, do you -- know how do you disaggregate that and say so many were in this category and so many were in that category. You can't know that. I don't know that. And I know I don't know that. And people who think they know probably don't."

FORGET THE CASUALTIES AND REMEMBER, WE NEVER LOSE A BATTLE AND ALWAYS HAVE A CONSTITUTION AND A PUPPET GOVERNMENT. (IRRELEVANT!!)

"So amidst the violence -- and I'll box the compass one more time -- which exists, let there be no doubt -- there's also a string of victories for those who want a single country, who want a representative system, who want a constitutional government and who are trying to form a new government. And that's a good thing. And it's worth at least mention as we conclude Charlie's last press conference."

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RUMMY MAKES $5M KILLING ON BIRD FLU DRUG

Rummy has made more than $5m in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease. Mr Rumsfeld sold some of his Gilead shares in 2004 reaping - according to the financial disclosure report he is required to make each year - capital gains of more than $5m. . . . The 2005 report showed that, in all, he owned shares worth up to $95.9m, from which he got an income of up to $13m, owned land worth up to $17m, and made $1m from renting it out. He also had illiquid investments worth up to $8.1m, including in partnerships investing in biotechnology, issuing reproductions of paintings, and operating art galleries in New Mexico and Wyoming. He also has life insurance with a surrender value of up to $5m, and received up to $1m from the DHR Foundation, in which he has assets worth up to $25m, and $773,743 from the Donald H Rumsfeld Trust, in which he has assets of up to $50m.

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IRAN: Background: The Bush administration has unilaterally repealed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) by demanding that Iran cease all uranium enrichment. This action overturns the central principle of the treaty which provides states with the "inalienable right" (NPT phrase) to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Two years of intrusive inspections by the UN watchdog agency (IAEA) have never produced "any evidence of nuclear weapons programs" or any diversion of nuclear material. Nevertheless, the US insists that Iran be deprived of the same right that is afforded to every other signatory of the NPT. THE REAL REASON WE'RE BULLYING IRAN IS THAT THEY DON'T ACCEPT OUR MOVE TO MASTER THE MIDDLE EAST.

OMINOUS STATEMENT OF THE MONTH: "I will say this about Iran. They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq. And we know it, and it is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment." ---SOUNDS LIKE AN ATTACK ON IRAN IS A DONE DEAL!!

LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE: Senator Byrd said in his view any attack on Iran would risk setting off a regional conflict at a time when the United States already has its hands full in Iraq. He pressed Rumsfeld to say whether any of the funds being sought would go to plan such an attack. "Senator Byrd, I know of no plans to attack Iran, if that’s the big thrust of your question," Rumsfeld said.

MUCH MORE ON IRAN here.

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THE IRAQ WAR IS BEING BLOWN ALL OUT OF PROPORTION

"From what I've seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation, according to General Casey. The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated. The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated. The behavior of the Iraqi security forces had been mischaracterized in some instances. . . Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side. It isn't as though there simply have been a series of random errors on both sides of issues. On the contrary, the steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq. . . Today our nation is again in a long struggle. And again, the toughest challenge will be to maintain our national will to persevere and to prevail."

NEWS REPORT: Days after the bombing of a Shiite shrine unleashed a wave of retaliatory killings of Sunnis, the leading Shiite party in Iraq's governing coalition directed the Health Ministry to stop tabulating execution-style shootings, according to a ministry official familiar with the recording of deaths.

NEWS REPORT: The US State Department on Wednesday released a damning report on the state of human rights and the security situation in Iraq, describing a weak and corrupt government with little control over its own murderous security forces in the face of a powerful insurgency.

TARGETED TOWARD THE WARMONGERS OURSELVES, DARN IT

"We do know that their goal is to try to break the will -- that they consider the center of gravity of this not to be in Iraq -- because they know they can't win a battle out there -- they consider it to be in Washington, D.C., and in London, in the capitals of the Western world."

WHAT ABOUT US AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD? HE SAID: "The potential is there now for sectarian violence to become a full-blown civil war, and that Iraq is really vulnerable at this time."

"Well, he's there. He's an expert, and he said what he said. I happen to not have read it, but I certainly am not going to try to disagree with it. There's always been a potential for that. We've -- I mean, that's something that people have talked about from the beginning."

AND BIG-MOUTH KHALILZAD ALSO SAID: "the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 opened the Pandora's box of ethnic and sectarian violence."

TIME TO BRING UP THE ALL-IMPORTANT CONSTITUTION AGAIN

"Well, I haven't seen the full text of it, but clearly if you take away a repressive regime that puts -- slaps people in jail, kills them, fills graves with hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens, uses chemicals on their own people, and you stop doing that [WELL, YEAH, THEY STOPPED--BUT WE PICKED UP WHERE SADDAM LEFT OFF], and you say to them, "Folks, a constitution, a piece of paper is going to be what's going to hold this place together" -- that is an enormous step."

LOOK AT IT THIS WAY--IRAQ, LIKE VIETNAM, IS JUST A POTHOLE IN THE HIGHWAY TO HAPPINESS

"So I guess you have to, you know, deal with the world and make best judgments, successive administrations do that, and generally, I would say, given the past record, the country -- our country's been pretty successful at it in the last 50 to 60 years with periodic potholes in the road, as you suggest."

AND IRAN--WHY ARE THEY MEDDLING IN THEIR NEIGHBORING COUNTRY THAT WE INVADED? CHEEZ. NO RESPECT.

"I will say this about Iran. They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq. And we know it, and it is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment."

IT'S PROBABLY THOSE SNEAKY PILGRIMS

"In a country the size of California with a population of 28 million people and porous borders with Iranian pilgrims going back and forth al the time, it's not an easy thing to make those kinds of good judgments."

THEY CAN TAKE LESSONS FROM US IN BORDER CONTROL

"We're working with the Iraqi government to enhance the capacity, the total numbers dedicated to border control, and also their capacity."

THE IRAQIS AREN'T THE ONLY ONES THAT DON'T WANT US--IT'S ALSO THE JAPANESE

"Well, you know, if you've got millions of people in a country, there are always going to be different views. That's the way it is, and you expect that. That's what democracy's about."

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WE PUT THE WAR WOUNDED BACK TOGETHER AGAIN

"The thing that's changed is in previous wars people were not moved off the battlefield very rapidly. They were then not moved from a field hospital very rapidly, and so a great many died. In this conflict the medical attention is so terrific that within a matter of minutes they're moved off of the battlefield. They're put in a field hospital in several locations in Iraq, for the sake of argument, then they're moved to Landstuhl, Germany where they're stabilized.

"They're generally back in Walter Reed or Bethesda within two to five days. The medical attention they're receiving is absolutely amazing. What they're able to do to these young folks in putting them back together so they can live normal lives is just breathtaking, it's so impressive. It's never been that way before. So the kinds of people today that are out here [Vail] skiing in previous wars wouldn't have been around. The medical attention just wasn't that good, that rapid, that fast."

AREN'T YOU SORRY YOU EMBEDDED REPORTERS IN MILITARY UNITS SO THEY'D SLANT THE NEWS?

"No. I'm glad I did it. The effect of it was that you took -- we no longer have the draft in our country so an awful lot of people in our Congress, in the journalist profession never serve in the military. Therefore they don't understand it, they don't know a lot about it, and yet they're reporting on it. And to have them embedded during the war was a terrific thing because it took perfectly fine young men and women who were journalists, put them in a position where they could see what a truly professional, terrific job these Soldiers and Sailors and Airmen and Marines are doing for the country. They saw it, they reported it, it was accurate, and it was their slice that they saw. The rest of their lives when they hear things that are terrible about the American military they're not going to believe them because they were there. They saw these people."

PEOPLE ARE STUPID--THEY DON'T REALIZE HOW UNPOPULAR WARS ARE

"I think the biggest problem we've got in the country is people don't study history any more. People who go to school in high schools and colleges, they tend to study current events and call it history. There's never been a popular war. George Washington was almost fired. The Civil War was the ugliest thing -- carnage, 10,000, 15,000 people killed in a battle. The same thing in World War II in the Pacific War. The carnage was just horrendous. And Franklin Roosevelt was one of the most hated people in the country and he was President of the United States. He was Commander in Chief. He did a terrific job. The Korean War. Harry Truman went out of office with 23 percent popularity in the polls. Think of that. In the Korean War."

THEY DON'T REALIZE THAT THE U.S.A. WOULDN'T EXIST WITHOUT THESE UNPOPULAR WARS, LIKE VIETNAM, FOR EXAMPLE

"Now, the Vietnam War. Unpopular war. You can't name a popular war. There isn't such a thing. They're ugly, terrible things. And if throughout the history of our country every time people looked at it and said my Lord, war is a terrible thing, and it is a terrible thing. They look at it and say it's a terrible thing. It's not worth the cost; it's not worth the lives; they tossed in the towel. There wouldn't be a United States of America."

IT'S ALL A RESULT OF POOR JOURNALISM

"We need to do a better job of having people understand that, and frankly, journalists ought to do a better job of providing context for what's taking place rather than just running around trying to win a Pulitzer by dramatizing something that's negative that in fact is negative [SIC]."

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RUMMY'S IN INDEPENDENCE, MO., WHERE A COMPANY HAS BEEN AWARDED A $300 MILLION CONTRACT FOR SMALL ARMS AMMO, USED BY THE PENTAGON TO KILL PEOPLE

Alliant Lake City Small Caliber Ammunition Company L.L.C., Independence, Mo., was awarded on Feb. 28, 2006, a delivery order amount of $133,903,888 as part of a $300,450,340 firm-fixed-price contract for Small Caliber Ammunition Services. Work will be performed in Independence, Mo., and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 5, 2005. The U.S. Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (DAAA09-99-D-0016).

BUT RUMMY SAYS IRAQ'S NOT SO BAD (OUR GUYS MUST BE BAD SHOTS)

"You know, we look at the violence that's taking place there, and compare it to the United States or to Europe or something, kind of ignoring the fact that there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people killed in the United States of America every year in homicides"

THOSE PEOPLE JUST DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER

"And while violence is always stunning and shocking and heartbreaking to see innocent people killed, the reality is that that's been a violent part of the world for a good long time and what we're seeing there now is a conscious effort by the terrorists and the insurgents to incite a civil war and sectarian strife."

WE DON'T LIKE THE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE THEY PUT IN CHARGE

"they have to see that the police forces and the military forces, the Minister of Defense and the Ministry of Interior's forces are a mixture of people from all segments of the society"

BUT THINGS ARE GOING WELL, ACCORDING TO GENERAL CASY (WHO SAID IN SEPTEMBER 2004 THAT MOST OF THE COUNTRY WOULD BE PACIFIED BY THE END OF THAT YEAR)

"I'm told by General Casey yesterday morning in a conference call I had with him that the Ministry of Defense forces have conducted themselves exceedingly well during this period since the bombing of the Golden Dome Shrine."

WE'VE GOT SOME PENTAGON MILITARY GENIUSES WORKING ON THE POLICE FORCES

"The police forces are not as well developed and not as far along. The Department of Defense just took them over three or four months ago and assumed the responsibility for their training and equipping."

THERE'S NO TORTURE AT GITMO (AND NO CALORIES IN BEER)

"We know that torture is not occurring there. We know that for a fact. We have enormously responsible people who are managing that situation."

NEWS ITEM: Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in US custody does not apply to people held at the military prison. In federal court yesterday and in legal filings, Justice Department lawyers contended that a detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, cannot use legislation drafted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to challenge treatment that the detainee's lawyers described as "systematic torture."

IT'S THOSE TERRORIST MEDIA COMMITTEES

"The reality is that the terrorists have media committees. They are getting very clever at manipulating the media in the United States and in the capitals of the world."

******************************************************* ****************************************************

Secretary Rumsfeld Remarks to National Guard Youth Challenge Participants

FIRST, THE HEAD TORTURER GETS THE KIDS' ATTENTION

"The task they're facing is a new one and a difficult one. It's not to compete against a major army or a major air force or a major navy, instead it's to try to defeat the terrorists, the people who are chopping off people's heads [AH, RUMMY, THAT'S OUR ALLIES IN SAUDI ARABIA] and blowing up innocent civilians [WHO, US?] over in the Middle East."

AND THEN ASKS: WHY DO IRAQIS RESIST OUR BENEVOLENT FORCE OF COMPASSION?

"The news we read about are they acts of violence by the terrorists for the most part [YOU GOT THAT RIGHT--THE CORPORATE MEDIA DOESN'T REPORT ON THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION WE BRING]. We don't read about the acts of compassion that are being undertaken by the men and women in uniform [WAR ISN'T HELL, IT'S ACTS OF COMPASSION]."

NEWS ITEM: Compassion? In October, 2004 the US military ordered 250,000 people living in Fallujah, Iraq to get out of the city--a city the size of Cincinnati. The men weren't alllowed to leave. The US military then destroyed the city with high explosive bombs and artillery, and destroyed all remaining life with white phosphorous and small arms fire. The women and children, many of them, are still living out in the desert. They try to stay warm in the cold, and try to stay out of the sun in the heat, and depend upon friendly Iraqis for whatever food and water they can get. There is no American aid. They have just one question for us: Why? Why did you do this to us?

BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH WE'RE ILLEGAL AND DEADLY AS HELL, WE'RE RIGHT

"They are on the right side. We as a country are on the right side because we're on the side of freedom [THE FREDOM TO INVADE AND OCCUPY]. The great sweep of human history is for freedom. There have always been dictators, there have always been terrorists, there have always been people who have attempted to impose their will on others [LIKE OUR AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ], but over time they've failed. Despite the fact that they succeeded at various stages, over time they've failed [BUT WE NEVER GIVE UP TRYING]."

MY CRITICS HAVE IT ALL WRONG, I'M REALLY A POET AT HEART, IF YOU CAN MAKE ANY SENSE OF IT

"I've often thought of throwing a pebble in a pond and watching the ripples go out. And how interesting that is that each person touches a series of circles of people that you come in contact with. If each of you not only manage your own affairs the way you're managing them in such an admirable way, but you represent the ripples that go out to the others you touch in your daily life, you'll find yourself rewarded many many times over."

*******************************************************

NOTES ON 9/11 MEETING WITH RUMSFELD WHEN HE SAID "HIT SADDAM HUSSEIN": These are Defense Department staffer Stephen Cambone's notes from a 2:40 PM meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. Cambone's notes were cited heavily in the 9/11 Commission Report's reconstruction of the day's events. The document was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Thad Anderson of outragedmoderates.org.

*******************************************************

FROM RUMMY'S RECENT COMMENTARY ON PROPAGANDA

ALL THAT MONEY WE GAVE THE GOVERNMENT WAS WASTED

"Our government is only beginning to adapt its operations for the 21st century. For the most part, it still functions as a five-and-dime store in an EBay world."

AND FOREIGN TV STATIONS DON'T BUY OUR ECONOMIC AND MILITARY IMPERIALISM

"Regrettably, many of the TV news channels being watched using these [satellite] dishes are extremely hostile to the West. The growing number of media outlets in many parts of the world still have relatively immature standards and practices that too often serve to inflame and distort rather than to explain and inform."

MUSLIMS HAVE POISONED MINDS

"Al Qaeda and other extremist movements have utilized these forums for many years, successfully adding more poison to the Muslim public's view of the West, but we have barely even begun to compete in reaching their audiences."

WE'VE BOUGHT OFF THE IRAQI PRESS

"In Iraq, for example, the U.S. military command, working closely with the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy, has sought nontraditional means to provide accurate information to the Iraqi people in the face of an aggressive campaign of disinformation."

BUT WHEN THE WORD GOT OUT, WE STOPPED

"Yet this has been portrayed as inappropriate: for example, the allegations of "buying news." The resulting explosion of critical media stories then causes all activity, all initiative, to stop."

OOPS, JUST KIDDING, IT DIDN'T REALLY STOP ACCORDING TO THIS UPDATE

"Apparently, it is -- was not stopped. It was put under review, and I don't have knowledge as to whether or not it's been stopped. I do have knowledge that it was put under review, and I was correctly informed, and I just misstated the facts."

HOW DO WE COUNTER ALL THAT TRUTH OUT THERE? MORE GOVERNMENT

"We need to consider the possibility of new organizations and programs that can serve a similarly valuable role in the war on terror."

NOT EVERYBODY HAS HEARD ABOUT IRAQI WMD'S AND IRAQI TIES TO EL QAEDA, BUT THEY WILL

"Although the enemy is increasingly skillful at manipulating the media and using the tools of communications to its advantage, it should be noted that we have an advantage as well. And that is, quite simply, that truth is on our side. Ultimately, the truth wins out."

DEM BONES, DEM BONES, DEM DRY BONES

"I believe with every bone in my body that free people, exposed to sufficient information, will, over time, find their way to the right decisions."

THE IRAQIS AND AFGHANIS, DON'T YOU KNOW, THREATENED OUR FREEDOM

"We are fighting a battle in which the survival of our free way of life is at stake."

NEXT, THE USUAL MYTH THAT THE PUBLIC RULES

"It is a test of wills, and it will be won or lost with our public and the publics of free nations around the world."

SO WE'RE GOING TO RAMP UP THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

"We need to do all we can to correct the lies being told, shatter the appeal of the enemy and attract supporters to our noble and necessary efforts to defeat violent extremism around the globe."

**************************************************

ON THE CHARLIE ROSE SHOW:

RUMMY SAYS: FORGET ABOUT ALL THAT ALL THAT DEATH AND DESTRUCTION AND EXPENSE IN IRAQ, THE REAL BATTLEGROUND IS HERE (IS HE NUTS, OR WHAT?)

"Today, we're not competing with our major armies, navies or air forces. It's an unconventional conflict. It is irregular warfare. It is asymmetric and the battleground is not so much out there, it is here."

VIETNAM REDUX: CAN WE PERSIST IN OUR FOLLY?

"It is a matter of will."

DO WE (AND FOREIGNERS) HAVE THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO SUPPORT IMPERIALISM?

"It is a matter of the public's attitudes about these things. Instead of the center of gravity where the naval war is being fought, the center of gravity is in the capitals of cities all across a nations all across the world . ."

IT'S THE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSIBILITY TO FORM THOSE ATTITUDES

". . .we are going to simply have to figure out ways to get arranged to cope with that."

AND NEW GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA AGENCIES

"The question is what are those institutions that might be of value today in the 21st century, given these new realities that exist? And how might we be best arranged so that we can if it be effective?"

WE'LL NEVER SLEEP

"We clearly have a responsibility for carrying the message of what it is we're doing 24 hours a day --"

THEY'RE NOT TELLING THE TRUTH

"the message out there is filled with in the air waves are filled with lies."

WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING 'CUZ THE MEDIA IS NOT SUPPORTIVE ENOUGH

"I don't know the answers to these things. I just know the questions and I’m concerned about it because it's pretty clear that when our society is not doing the job that needs to be done."

AND AS EVERYONE KNOWS THE FOREIGN PRESS IS TOTALLY CONTROLLED BY THAT SICK GUY IN THE CAVE

"The al Qaeda are constantly, systematically putting out lies about the United States of America."

WE'LL GIVE THE MEDIA A CHANCE TO CORRECT THEMSELVES

"I think the media ought to ask itself how it's doing, and they can do that, on their own time."

RUMMY'S GOT TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO FINESSE THE NEWS BETTER

" . . .my task is to try to help figure out what government might do to do a better job for our country in this new -- this era of the new realities of the 21st century,"

BECAUSE WE DON'T CONTROL THE WORLD LIKE WE USED TO

" . . it is a fundamentally different environment than when I was secretary of defense 30 years ago."

HEY, IT WORKED IN IRAQ

" . . .they know the enemy is lying about what they're doing. They're there to take over the oil, they're there to occupy the country and stay and take their property and they're abusing people and what have you. So, what they did was they are putting generators in hospitals and fixing schools and so they hired a contractor and the contractor which they have the authority to do, they hired the contractor and the contractor decided the thing to do was to get the fact they were put ago generator in the hospital, that type of thing, in the press so people see the other side of it."

EVEN THOUGH I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT IT, YOU UNDERSTAND

"And they went to the press people and, paid some people who speak Iraqi or Arabic to go to Iraqi journalists, as I understand it. I knew nothing of this."

NOW RUMMY GETS REALLY CRAZY

"What they did then probably in some instance paid some people to put it in the press. And in parts of the world, that is a practice that's normal as opposed to not here where it is -- just a minute. Now, then it makes the press. In the press. And the press loves the media. The media loves the media. They'd like to talk about nothing more than the media. They just love it. They talk to each other."

AND MORE CRAZY

"It is an infatuation. Now, what has happened, the press got it. Then the Congress calls for hearings and fussing about this and complaining about that as though it's something terrible that happened. It wasn't anything terrible that happened. When we heard about it, we said, "gee, that's not what we ought to be doing" and told the people down there. They told contractor who did it. Wasn't a military person. They stopped doing that. [WRONG--THEY DIDN'T STOP] But in the process, there's been a chilling effect. Anyone involved in public affairs in the military knows that they are right on the spear point. If they do anything that the media thinks is not exactly the way we do it in America, they're going to make a big deal out of it and get pounded and that is not career enhancing. They're going to end up, their names are going to be floated around in Congress in a hearing and so, who in the military would want to go anywhere near the third rail which is the media? Think of it."

THAT GUY IN THE CAVE, AGAIN . . .

" . . .this is a test of wills. The media committees of the al Qaeda are consciously trying to manipulate the American media and opinion elites in the United States . . ."

FLASHBACK--PRESIDENT BUSH, MARCH 13, 2002: "Well, deep in my heart, I know the man's on the run if he's alive at all. And I -- you know, who knows if he's hiding in some cave or not? We hadn't heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is really -- indicates to me people don't understand the scope of the mission. Terror's bigger than one person. And he's just -- he's a person who has now been marginalized. His network is -- his host government has been destroyed. He's the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match. He is -- you know, as I mention in my speeches -- I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death. And he, himself, tries to hide, if, in fact, he's hiding at all. So I don't know where he is. Nor -- you know, I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you."

. . . BIN LADEN WANTS US TO STOP DEFENDING THE NEW IRAN-ALLIED ISLAMIC-FUNDAMENTALIST GOVERNMENT? SAY WHAT?

" . . to get us to pull out of Iraq and pull of Afghanistan, and pull out of the Middle East so that they can re-establish the Islamic, extremist, Islamist califate. That's what they say."

IT'S PERFECTLY CLEAR

"The quotes are there. It's on the internet. People can understand that."

OKAY, I SAID EARLIER THAT THE FOREIGN PRESS WAS SYSTEMATICALLY PUTTING OUT LIES, BUT NOW

"I’m not judgmental about the message."

THE AMERICAN PRESS ISN'T FULLY SUPPORTING THE WAR

"I speak to the troops all the time. I talk for about ten minutes and then I answer questions for about 30 minutes, 40 minutes. And I have never once spoken to a town hall filled with soldiers sailors, airmen, Marines, male and female all across our country and not had one or two of them stand up and ask me what can be done about the negative impression that is being sent back from Iraq by the journalists to the United States."

THERE'S GOT TO BE CONTEXT AND AN UNDERSTANDING OF HISTORY

"Now, I don't know everything that's going on in Iraq and I don't read everything that's written here but I think that it is important that there be context. And context means an understanding of history."

AND SOME CHEERLEADING WOULDN'T HURT

"And an appreciation for what's being done in the complexities of what is being done."

WE HAVE TO CHANGE BECAUSE TERRORISTS WANT US TO CHANGE--GOT THAT?

"The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. It is to alter your behavior . ."

AND I DON'T WANT TO THREATEN ANYONE, PARTICULARLY THE MEDIA, BUT

" . . .we have a lot of ability in the department if you think of the things a military needs to do, it is to find the enemy, the fix them. And to finish and close out, deal with it. Capture or kill." [DON'T FORGET TORTURE, RUMMY]

WE HAVE TO DEFEND MODERATE MUSLIMS (LIKE THE IRANIS IN IRAQ?) AGAINST EXTREMISTS. A NOBLE CAUSE

" . . .it is relatively small number of violent extremists. Against a large, overwhelming majority of Muslims that are not extremists. That are moderate."

THE EL QAEDA COMMITTEES MANIPULATING THE MEDIA WEREN'T SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW WE LISTENED IN ON THEM

"My goodness. It's [THE NSA REVELATIONS] like standing up and having a billboard or a website and saying, hey, anyone out there with something against the United States and wants to harm them, be on notice that they're doing this, that or the other thing. . . I say that we have seen instances where people altered their behavior when they understand better about what's taking place."

WE'RE IN IRAQ FOR THE OIL? IT'S A BIG LIE.

"The opposition, the enemies are lying. They're saying we're there because we want to stay and they’re saying we want permanent bases. They say we're after their oil. . . Certainly is not true. And, and that -- that people believe. The local television stations feed it. Al Jazeera makes a career out of it."

FACT: Bush's Executive Order 13303 unilaterally declared Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of U.S. corporations.

SHIFTING TOPICS, LET'S TALK ABOUT CHINA (EVERY COUNTRY NEEDS MORE THAN ONE ENEMY)

"I see China as a large country, an important country, a country that has been in isolation for a long period from much of the world that has -- had a history of being difficult with its neighbors."

LIKE WHEN THEY INVADED VIETNAM? OH,I FORGOT, THAT WAS US

"Whether Russia or India, Vietnam the Spratly Islands." [THE SPRATLY ISLANDS??]

JUST BECAUSE NEARLY EVERYTHING WE BUY IS MADE IN CHINA DOESN'T MEAN THEY'RE SUCCESSFUL--THEY NEED MY ADVICE

"And a country that today is after Dung Chow Ping placed them on the economic track of opening up their economy and trying to develop their economy, on a path that looks to me to be constructive. And, the -- you cannot be successful economically without opening your system to some extent. You have to have -- a command economy isn't going to work."

THEY SHOULDN'T BE MILITARISTIC LIKE US AND INVADE NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES AND SEND SPY PLANES AND STUFF

". . .they're on a path of wanting to increase their economy. That's good in my view. That's a positive impulse. And not a negative one from my standpoint. What we need to do is to interact with them in a way that to the extent they have choices they make choices that are peaceful . . ."

THEY'RE NOT TRANSPARENT IN WHAT THEY DO MILITARILY (RUMMY GETS NUTTY AGAIN)

"To the extent they're not transparent in their -- what they're doing militarily, it does raise questions on the part of their neighbors and others. And they have been less than transparent."

IRAN THREATENS ISRAEL, OH HORRORS. AND WORSE--THEY SAY WHAT THEY SAY!!

"You have a country that says they'd like to see Israel wiped off the map and the United States not exist. A country that's sponsoring one of the -- I suppose, the leading terrorist sponsoring organization in the world. . . Hezbollah. . . and Hamas. There they are. They do what they do. They say what they say."

BUT WE'VE GOT PLANS TO CHANGE THEIR GOVERNMENT (AGAIN) 'CUZ THE PEOPLE ARE GREAT AND WE KNOW WHAT'S BEST

"The Persian people are a wonderful, talented people. They have a great history and one has to believe that over time, the women and the young people are going to be uncomfortable with rule by a handful of clerics."

IRAN IS COZYING UP TO RUSSIA, CHINA,VENEZUELA AND INDIA, AMONG OTHERS, BUT RUMMY CALLS THAT ISOLATION

"Whose behavior is having the result of isolating that country from the rest of the world? Here's a country, they know the rest of the world and they know what's going on in the rest of the world, and they're now getting isolated because of their leadership."

WE'RE GOING THROUGH THE DIPLOMATIC CHARADE AGAIN, LIKE IRAQ IN 2002

"The President's is, properly, in my view, on a diplomatic track. Working with the European allies and friends to try to work through the IAEA and conceivably eventually at the United Nations. One hopes that the views of the rest of the world will have some impact on the folks --

UPDATE: The House of Representatives just voted 404-4 to censure the government of Iran and report Iran to the UN Security Council for violations that actually do not exist.

WE INVADED IRAN'S NEIGHBOR IRAQ, BUT WHY SHOULD IRAN CARE?

"They're harmful. You know, there are -- there are relationships across there that go back centuries. There are the holy spots for the Shia faith; they're in an Najaf and the cities in Iraq. So there's pilgrims, Shia pilgrims that come from Iran. By the tens of thousands that come into Iraq all the time. Iraq has intelligence people in -- Iran does in Iraq. Now, do they want a democracy on their border? No. That is not a good thing from their standpoint."

BECAUSE WE GAVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT--AN EXTREME ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT IN IRAQ--BUT RUMMY PRETENDS NOT

"They want extreme, extreme Islamists to be in charge of countries. that's what they want. And that is what they would like in Iraq."

IRAN'S NOT HAPPY, SAYS RUMMY--SO WHY ARE THEY THUMBING THEIR NOSE AT US AND THREATENING ISRAEL?

They have got a democracy in Afghanistan and on the other border. Not a happy prospect for them either.

ARAB SPOKESMEN AND EVERY MAJOR STUDY INDICATES THAT ARABS HATE WHAT WE DO, NOT WHAT WE ARE, BUT ACCORDING TO RUMMY . . .

". . the extremists are determined to have everyone live under the beliefs and convictions and ideology that they put forward. They do not accept anything other than that. That strikes directly at our free system. At our free way of life. And, at the free way of life of countries all across the globe. So, it is something that can't be compromised with. There is not going to be a some sort of an agreement where you negotiate out of settlement of it. It is fundamentally opposed to what we believe in."

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IN 2003, AT THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, RUMMY LIKENED THE IRAQI OCCUPATION RESISTANCE TO OUR REBELLION AGAINST THE BRITISH

"The problems are real, to be sure -- looting; crime; mobs storming buildings; breakdown of government structures and institutions that maintained civil order; rampant inflation caused by the lack of a stable currency; supporters of the former regime roaming the streets, countryside, whose fate has yet to be determined; regional tensions between the North and the South; delays, bickering, false starts in an effort to establish a new government."

BUT RECENTLY AT THE CFR, ALMOST THREE YEARS LATER, AS THE RESISTANCE INTENSIFIES, IT'S MOSTLY A MEDIA PROBLEM

"Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today’s media age, but for the most part we -- our country -- has not -- whether our government, the media or our society generally."

THE RASCALS PICK UP ON THINGS LIKE TORTURE PHOTOS AND CHILD BEATING VIDEOS

"They know that communications transcend borders -- and that a single news story, handled skillfully, can be as damaging to our cause and as helpful to theirs, as any other method of military attack. And they are doing it."

AND WE CAN'T RELY ON THE CORPORATE MEDIA (WE SHOT A LOT OF THEM)--THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO MAKE UP STORIES--ER, THE 'TRUTH'

"What complicates the ability to respond quickly is that, unlike our enemies, which propagate lies with impunity -- with no penalty whatsoever -- our government does not have the luxury of relying on other sources for information -- anonymous or otherwise. Our government has to be the source. And we tell the truth."

WE USED TO LIE 8-5, BUT NOW WE'RE GOING 24-7

"The standard U.S. government public affairs operation was designed primarily to respond to individual requests for information. It tends to be reactive, rather than proactive -- and it still operates for the most part on an eight hour, five-days-a-week basis, while world events, and our enemies, are operating 24-7, across every time zone. That is an unacceptably dangerous deficiency."

NON-TRADITIONAL MEANS--PAYING FOR NEWS STORIES--WORKS IN IRAQ

"In Iraq, for example, the U.S. military command, working closely with the Iraqi government and the United States Embassy, has sought non-traditional means to provide accurate information to the Iraqi people in the face of the aggressive campaign of disinformation."

BUT THIS IS TOO MUCH EVEN FOR THE CORPORATE MEDIA

"The conclusion is drawn that there is no tolerance for innovation, much less any human error that could conceivably be seized upon by a press that seems to demand perfection from the government, but does not apply the same standard to the enemy or even sometimes to themselves."

WHAT TO DO? FIRST, PRIORITIZE PROPAGANDA

"First, government at all levels will need to make communications planning a central component of every aspect of this struggle."

WE NOW HAVE PROPAGANDA STRIKE FORCES

"Within the past year and a half, the U.S. military’s Joint Forces Command has developed rapidly deployable military communications teams, that are organized and focused on specific geographic areas of the world."

SECOND, WE'LL EXTEND THE PROPAGANDA INTO THE BLOGOSPHERE

"Second, government public affairs and public diplomacy efforts must reorient staffing, schedules and culture to engage the full range of media that are having such an impact today. Our U.S. Central Command, for example, has launched an online communications effort that includes electronic news updates and a links campaign, that has resulted in several hundred blogs receiving and publishing CENTCOM content."

A WAR CRIMINAL HAS TO BE HUMBLE, BUT CHEEZ, WE'VE GOT TO GET THIS PROPAGANDA THING UNDERWAY AND CONGRESS IS IN THE WAY

"And I suggest that some humility is in order, because there is no guide book -- no roadmap -- to tell our hard working folks what to do to meet these new challenges. Secretary of State Rice’s proposal to support the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people through expanded broadcasting, the Internet and student exchanges is a good start, and deserves support. But because it is new, and different, it is receiving opposition in the Congress."

WE NEED TO CORRECT THE LIE THAT IRAQ WASN'T THREATENING OUR FREEDOM

"We are fighting a battle where the survival of our free way of life is at stake. And the center of gravity of that struggle is not just on the battlefield. It is a test of wills and it will be won or lost with our public and the publics of free nations across the globe. We will need to do all we can to attract supporters to our efforts, to correct the lies being told which so damage our country, and shatter the appeal of the enemy."

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RUMMY GOES TO CONGRESS TO TALK WATER AND OIL (WHAT HAPPENED TO DEMOCRACY?)

from a news source:

"Are we gonna end up with something that we stand back and look at and say, 'Gee, that's a pretty picture? ' No! It's gonna be an Iraqi picture! It's not gonna be an American picture! (Starts beating his fist on the table) But, it's gonna get done and, and, the idea of the alternative, of turning that country with that water, and that oil, over to terrorists, to Zarqawi type people that are out beheading people [that's our terrorist-funding ally Saudi Arabia, Rummy]. (pause) I think that the thought of that is just fundamentally unacceptable."

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EIGHT TRILLION DOLLAR NATIONAL DEBT? NOT A PROBLEM, RUMMY SAYS

Testifying in support of the Defense Department’s 2007 fiscal year budget request of $439.3 billion, Rumsfeld said U.S. military commanders have balanced the requirement to meet both unconventional and traditional military threats*. "We can afford whatever we need as a country," he said.

*but he previously has stated that there is no traditional military threat: "There aren't big air forces or big navies or big armies that are contesting us. What we're facing is terrorism and asymmetric attacks of various types."

and now the Navy and Marines want more: "The Navy and Marine Corps are facing a collective $7 billion shortfall in fiscal year 2007 to pay for needed aircraft and warships that were not funded in the $127.3 billion spending request for the naval services the White House delivered to Congress last week," according to senior Pentagon officials.

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RUMMY SAYS THAT WE NEED TO CORRECT THE (BUSH) LIES THAT ARE BEING TOLD

"We are fighting a battle where the survival of our free way of life is at stake and the center of gravity of that struggle is not simply on the battlefield overseas; it's a test of wills, and it will be won or lost with our publics, and with the publics of other nations," Rumsfeld said. "We'll need to do all we can to attract supporters to our efforts and to correct the lies that are being told, which so damage our country, and which are repeated and repeated and repeated."

a reminder from the files:

RUMMY JUSTIFIES THE IRAQ INVASION WITH OLD LIES "The United States made a conscious decision to go to the United Nations [AND LIE], and to express the concern that was felt by most of the Western nations about the fact that Iraq was a terrorist state [THE CIA SAID THERE WERE NO TIES TO EL QAEDA. IN FACT, IRAQ AND EL QAEDA WERE ENEMIES], Iraq was a state that was shooting at our aircraft [COMBAT BOMB-DROPPING AIRCRAFT] that were enforcing the Northern and Southern No-Fly Zones [ARBITRARY ZONES ESTABLISHED BY THE US] on a regular basis. It was providing $25,000 for families of suicide bombers [OUR BOMBERS DO IT FOR LESS]. It's a country that had used chemical weapons [WHICH WE PROVIDED] against its own people and its neighbors [NEIGHBORS -- THAT'S A NEW ONE]. The President went to the United Nations [AND LIED] and to the Congress [AND LIED] and made a conscious [UNCONSTITUTIONAL] decision to do what was done." *******************************************************

THE CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY APPARENTLY DOESN'T EXTEND TO NORTH AFRICAN COUNTRIES RECENTLY VISITED BY RUMSFELD

Q: How do you respond to critics who say that the U.S. should not improve bilateral or multi-lateral relations with these three countries [Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco] until there are more political reforms?

Secretary Rumsfeld: Obviously, I respond by visiting them and working with them and recognizing the progress they have made and cooperating with them.

more information on 'Rumsfeld's Pet Tyrants'

and from the CIA World Factbook:

TUNISIA:Following independence from France in 1956, President Habib BOURGUIBA established a strict one-party state. He dominated the country for 31 years, repressing Islamic fundamentalism and establishing rights for women unmatched by any other Arab nation. In recent years, Tunisia has taken a moderate, non-aligned stance in its foreign relations. Domestically, it has sought to defuse rising pressure for a more open political society.----chief of state: President Zine El Abidine BEN ALI (since 7 November 1987)---- head of government: Prime Minister Mohamed GHANNOUCHI (since 17 November 1999)---- cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president---- elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term; election last held 24 October 2004 (next to be held October 2009); prime minister appointed by the president---- election results: President Zine El Abidine BEN ALI reelected for a fourth term; percent of vote - Zine El Abidine BEN ALI 94.5%, Mohamed BOUCHIHA 3.8%, Mohamed Ali HALOUANI 1%

ALGERIA:The army placed Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA in the presidency in 1999 in a fraudulent election but claimed neutrality in his 2004 landslide reelection victory. Longstanding problems continue to face BOUTEFLIKA in his second term, including the ethnic minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy campaign, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of housing, unreliable electrical and water supplies, government inefficiencies and corruption, and the continuing - although significantly degraded - activities of extremist militants.chief of state: President Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA (since 28 April 1999)---- head of government: Prime Minister Ahmed OUYAHIA (since 9 May 2003)---- cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president---- elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term; election last held 8 April 2004 (next to be held NA April 2009); prime minister appointed by the president---- election results: Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA reelected president for second term; percent of vote - Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA 85%, Ali BENFLIS 6.4%, Abdellah DJABALLAH 5%

MOROCCO:Gradual political reforms in the 1990s resulted in the establishment of a bicameral legislature in 1997. Parliamentary elections were held for the second time in September 2002 and municipal elections were held in September 2003.----chief of state: King MOHAMED VI (since 30 July 1999)---- head of government: Prime Minister Driss JETTOU (since 9 October 2002)---- cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the monarch---- elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; prime minister appointed by the monarch following legislative elections

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WE CAN'T GET OUR WAY IN THE UNITED NATIONS ANY MORE, BUT NATO IS A DIFFERENT STORY

" . . .it is clear that the old NATO of NATO defending the NATO treaty area, is a NATO of the past. And the new NATO is a NATO that recognizes that there are threats and problems and challenges that face the world that are global in nature. . . NATO is the premier security alliance on the face of the earth. It has capabilities to do things, and those capabilities are improving. If the NATO Response Force is able to be stood up and become operational and if we are able to develop common funding so that it can be deployable, exercised and used as appropriate and as agreed by the member countries; and if the competencies that exist within NATO can be used to advantage in other parts of the world, NATO can make that decision and undertake those."

IRAN, IRAQ, I GET ALL MIXED UP

"Oh, Iran being --- Iran is the central -- Iraq is the central front of the current war. That is quite correct. I think it was here. And they’ve announced it -- the terrorists, the al Quaeda have announced that at the present time Iran [Iraq?] is the central front in their conflict. A lot of pressure is being put on them. At some point in the period ahead it will no longer be the central front. They will move their area of operations someplace else and continue to struggle and in my view [his hope] it will be a long war."

WE'VE GOT TO START MAKING NICE WITH THE MUSLIM MODERATES--NO MORE SHAHS, KINGS, KINETICS, ISRAELIS OR DICTATORS FOR US

"And clearly it is not going to be dealt with by military means alone. It is not going be dealt with by kinetics ultimately. Where it is a struggle that is taking place within that religion and we need to find ways in my view to support the moderates in that religion that are the overwhelming majority and find ways to assist them and see that we can strengthen their capabilities as partners in this effort because there are people who are determined to not negotiate, to continue to try to attract people into this business of using terror to alter the behavior of free people."

AND WE JUST NEED GOOD POLICE WORK, NOT A TWO MILLION PERSON MILITARY FORCE, SO I'M ANNOUNCING HUGE CUTS . . .

"We have in my view no choice whatsoever except to accept the threat and arrange ourselves to this large worldwide coalition so that we can put continued pressure on the terrorists networks, make everything they are doing more difficult for them, more difficult to raise money, to recruit people, to move, to talk, to plan and train and put so much pressure on them that it becomes less attractive and less successful and the world becomes a safer place."

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THE 2007 BUDGET REQUEST INCLUDES A 7% INCREASE FOR THE PENTAGON, TO $439 BILLION, PLUS ABOUT $120 BILLION FOR ONGOING WARS, OR AS MUCH AS $46 BILLION A MONTH (439+120/12)

"The president's budget request for the Department of Defense represents an increase over last year. It reflects what we should -- believe should be the country's national security priorities -- namely to help defend the United States of America and the American people and their interests, to give flexibility to commanders, to prepare for both conventional and unconventional or irregular warfare, and importantly, to work closely with partner nations to help them develop the capabilities needed to defeat terrorists within their borders, and to cooperate with us and other countries with respect to this global threat."

EVEN THOUGH WE FACE NO EXTERNAL MILITARY THREAT

"We recognize the reality that the -- we have been very successful in deterring the threat from large armies, navies and air forces. On the other hand, those threats haven't disappeared [baloney--no nation now threatens the U.S.], and the kinds of capabilities that are necessary to continue to see that they [who?] are deterred and dissuaded require investments, and they are not something that you can turn the switch on and off and have those capabilities. They take years to develop, to plan, to develop, to initiate, and, finally, to manufacture, produce, deploy, train and outfit units capable of using those capabilities."

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Excerpts from an interview with Sabine Christiansen, CNBC

IRANIANS ARE GOOD PEOPLE RULED BY A HANDFUL OF THUGS

"The people of Iran are good people and they have a proud history and they are intelligent. They have, unlike some countries, closed systems. They do have a sense of what’s going on in the rest of the world; and they understand that there are countries, free countries, where people aren’t ruled by a small handful of thugs, where people can say what they wish, and do what they wish, and express themselves freely."[SOUNDS LIKE WE WANT TO OVERTHROW THE IRANIAN GOVERNMENT, AGAIN]

THE ELECTIONS THERE WERE KIND OF A SHAM

"I mean the elections in Iran were kind of a sham. They were told who can run and then allowed people to pick among those carefully selected people. That is really not a free and fair election. So I think that the people of Iran don’t want to be isolated. I think that they would like to be part of the world community in one way or another, and particularly probably the women and young people; and that over time, their desire not to be isolated will be manifested through their government in one way or another."[THE ELECTIONS IN IRAN WERE KIND OF A SHAM--SOMETHING WE'RE FAMILIAR WITH]

AND THEY WANT TO DEVELOP NUCLEAR POWER

"Well, if you have a country that is on the terrorist’s list, and if you have a country that is visibly, actively, openly supporting two major terrorist organizations -- Hizbollah and Hamas -- and simultaneously making the statements they are making, and simultaneously demonstrating their interest in developing nuclear capabilities, it has to be a concern to, not just people in the neighborhood, but people around the world because there are two risks." [THOSE TWO PARTIES JUST WON ELECTIONS]

WHICH BRINGS THE RISK OF IRAN HAVING A BOMB, OR WORSE, GIVING OTHERS THE TECHNOLOGY

"One risk is that a country that has extreme views [LIKE US?]-- the government has, some in the government have extreme views, if you want to be precise -- has that capability is one thing. But a country that conceivably could transfer those technologies to terrorist networks which they support with finances and with support with weaponry on an active basis, day in and day out, that’s quite a different problem. Iran has a country, a piece of real estate, something to lose, a nation state. Terrorist organizations don’t. They don’t have real estate to defend. They don’t have much to lose."[OH, COME ON, JUST GOOGLE 'HOW TO BUILD AN ATOMIC BOMB']

SO THE PRESIDENT WAS RIGHT TO THREATEN IRAN WITH MILITARY FORCE

"The President has said precisely what he wanted to say [that all options are on the table, incuding military force]; and it’s not for me, or anyone else who supports the President as I do, to try and elaborate on it. I think it says exactly what he wanted to say." [BECAUSE THE PRESIDENT IS KING AND HE DECIDES ON WARS AND STUFF]

THE ARMY AND MARINES COULD BE USED, AS WELL AS THE NAVY* AND AIR FORCE, WE'VE GOT TWO MILLION, BUT IT'S NOT A MATTER OF TOTAL NUMBERS

"As a matter of fact, as you know, we have started pulling down some forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have been re-balancing replacing skill sets. And we have been increasing the size of our military and we have got, I don’t know 25 or 30 separate things we are doing to find places where there is some stress and relieve that stress by better organization and better balance. We’ve got close to 2 million people in uniform and we are only supporting 138,000 in Iraq; so obviously if you are only worried about 138,000 in Iraq and you have got over 2 million, it’s a matter of organization, not total numbers."[OBVIOUSLY. WHAT DID HE SAY?]

*News update: Navy personnel to take Army jobs in Iraq (so much for 'enlistment contracts')

ARE YOU WORRIED THAT A HARD STANCE WITH IRAN WILL MAKE THE SITUATION WORSE IN IRAQ?

"No. Iran has already been notably unhelpful. They obviously are trying to influence what is taking place in Iraq. I think in the last analysis the Iraqi people, Shiite or not, will be Iraqis and they will be more nationalist. Iran obviously has been doing things to support terrorism that are not helpful but I don’t think that it will increase because of anything. We are not worried about that. We can handle that." [JUST LIKE WE HAVE HANDLED IRAQ SINCE 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED' IN 2003--PIECE OF CAKE]

IRAN'S PRESIDENT HAS SAID THAT ISRAEL SHOULD BE WIPED OFF THE MAP, AND BUSH HAS SAID HE WILL DEFEND ISRAEL--WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

"It means exactly that, that Israel is a democracy, it is a country that the United States has close relations with. And in the past, to the extent that Israel has been pressured or in duress, the people of the United States through their government have found ways to be of assistance."[ISRAEL IS IN VIOLATION OF COUNTLESS UN RESOLUTIONS, HAS NEVER SIGNED THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY AND HAS 100-200 NUCLEAR WARHEADS. BUT IT'S A DEMOCRACY, SO ANYTHING GOES.]

THE PRESIDENT OF IRAN, AHMADINEJAD, MIGHT BE ANOTHER HITLER

"Certainly the world made a big mistake in underestimating him [Hitler] and not understanding that what he wrote and what he said, he meant and was prepared to act on. Of course the result of that was many millions of people die. We are on notice."[MANY MILLIONS DIED IN VIETNAM; IRAN HAS NEVER INVADED ANY OTHER COUNTRY.]

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TAILS TO TEETH, INSTITUTIONAL TO OPERATIONAL

"One way I like to think about what's taken place over the last five years and the trajectory or the vectors we're on for the coming period, is that we've gone from really garrison forces that were in place at the end of the Cold War to expeditionary operations. We're shifting our weight, our emphasis, from large institutional forces which we think of as the tail, to large operational capabilities which are the teeth."

EVEN THOUGH THERE'S NO MILITARY THREAT

"We're moving from a focus as a department on major conventional combat capabilities to capabilities that will enable us to deal with irregular, asymmetric operations, the kinds of things that we're facing today. There aren't big air forces or big navies or big armies that are contesting us. What we're facing is terrorism and asymmetric attacks of various types."

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RUMMY CONFIRMS THAT THERE ARE NO MILITARY THREATS

Q Sir, is there going to be a change in the strategy of the American Army? I mean, you've been looking for bin Laden for the first four years, and Zarqawi and his people for the past three years, and you haven't been able to find them. So are you going to shift to accommodate the Army's strategy to guerrilla warfare instead of traditional warfare?

SEC. RUMSFELD: "Well, clearly there's an emphasis on recognizing that the things that we face today are not conventional threats with large armies, navies and air forces, but more asymmetric or irregular threats, and we've been making those adjustments over the past four and a half years."

BUT, EVEN THOUGH THERE HASN'T BEEN A NAVAL BATTLE SINE LEYTE GULF, IT'S SO NICE HAVING A BIG, EXPENSIVE NAVY 'READY TO SURGE'

"We hear a lot of talk about how many ships are there in the Navy. What people should talk about is not how many ships but how many ships are deployed, how many ships actually are giving you capability out there. And the percentage of the fleet routinely at sea has increased by more than 50 percent. And the number of deployable days has nearly doubled. And an additional third of the fleet is ready to surge, as required. In short, the United States Navy is vastly more capable, more lethal and more agile today."

SO LET'S MAKE THE FLEET EVEN BIGGER

Q Admiral Mullen is understood now to be proposing a rebuilding of the Navy, adding more than 30 ships to get back up over 300. Are you suggesting that perhaps that's not necessary?

SEC. RUMSFELD: "No, I agree with Admiral Mullen."

THE ARMY, NOW BEING WHUPPED BY ANOTHER RAGTAG COUNTRY,

"decided to reorganize into brigade combat teams consisting of about 4,000 soldiers, and it divided up the large division-size support systems to give each brigade enough of its own firepower, logistics and administrative capacity to deploy on its own. Because of the reforms now under way, some 75 percent of the Army's brigade structure should always be ready, in the event of a crisis, and more capacity in modules that are more flexible and more applicable to the new century. We are increasing from 33 to 42 combat brigades. The warfighting army will be higher, not lower."

THE PAPERWORK IS COMING TO JUSTIFY ALL THIS NEEDLESS EXPENSE

"In the coming weeks, the department, as you know, is going to submit to Congress several documents. One is the Quadrennial Defense Review, another is the National Military Strategy Risk Assessment, and the third is the president's 2007 budget request and the Forward Year Defense Plan. Each is part of a larger strategy designed to focus on how to fight future wars and how to maintain the momentum behind the last several years' continuum of change."

IN THE MEANTIME, SOME SAY THE ARMY IS 'CLOSE TO BREAKING'

Q Mr. Secretary, may I continue on along much the same line? There's another report on the table, one ostensibly ordered by the Defense Department and prepared by a retired military officer, which refers to a thin green line and says the Army is stretched so thin it's close to breaking.

SEC. RUMSFELD: "I just can't imagine someone looking at the United States armed forces today and suggesting that they're close to breaking. That's just not the case."

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Rummy's Bird Flu Bonanza

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"I MEAN, GOODNESS, GRACIOUS, THE QUESTIONS YOU ASK" -- A RECENT ASSORTMENT

Q: . . .I call to your attention an article by a British brigadier in the U.S. Army Journal where he says that the U.S. Army is culturally ignorant of Iraq and Iraqis, that we are given to unwanted and unwarranted optimism, and that we are guilty of institutional racism, which he claims has added to the growth of the insurgency.

I guess his bottom line, however, in all of this is that perhaps the United States is fighting insurgents improperly. Under your transformation of this recent meeting, are you going to revise your tactics instead of going in with massive troops and armies and navies to fight insurgents in future battles?

SEC. RUMSFELD: "I've not read the article that this individual apparently has written, and it -- just from your characterization of it, as imperfect as it may be -- or perfect as it may be also, yeah -- it seems to me that one would make a mistake to think that one size fits all, that there is one way to do something and only one way or that the nature of the situation on the ground in Iraq, for example, is identical in all sections of the country, which it is not, or that the situation on the ground in Iraq is identical to what is taking place in Afghanistan, which it is not, and broad, sweeping generalizations of that type need to be supported by information, and I've not had an opportunity to read it so -- "

Q: We got word that the German, French and British foreign ministers say it [Iran] should be referred to the U.N. Security Council. If economic sanctions don't work, is the U.S. prepared for military action against Iran?

SEC. RUMSFELD: "I'll leave those questions to the White House and the Department of State."

Q: There is a new study that suggests the cost of the war in Iraq could run to $1 (trillion) to $2 trillion when you include permanent lifetime care for vets and replacement of equipment. Can you just respond to that? What do you think of that?

SEC. RUMSFELD: "I haven't seen it."

Q: But surely you've got some --

SEC. RUMSFELD: "I haven't seen it."

Q: Mr. Secretary, I was wondering if you'd seen Mr. Bremer's new book and if you've had a chance -- and wonder what your reaction is.

SEC. RUMSFELD: "You people ought to get a life. (Scattered laughter.) I mean, goodness, gracious, the questions you ask. I haven't seen it."

Q: Mr. Secretary, back to Iran. Is there a military option, or have the Iranians done a good enough job of hiding their facilities, protecting some deeply underground -- that taking out their capability the way the Israelis did in Iraq in 1981 simply isn't an option?

SEC. RUMSFELD: "I don't think my discussing that subject is useful --" [TRANSLATION: I'LL LET THE BOMBS DO THE TALKING

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IT'S QUADRENNIAL DEFENSE REVIEW TIME AGAIN, WHEN THE BRASS DECIDES HOW TO SPLIT UP THE 400 BILLION DOLLARS (ANNUAL)

"We recognize the appetite that the enemies facing our country and free people everywhere on the globe -- that they have for weapons of mass destruction and increasingly powerful weapons, and the dangers that that poses. We recognize the difficulty of defending in every location at every moment against every conceivable type of asymmetric attack . . . we have a process where the combatant commanders look at their circumstances, and they then develop contingency plans. For major things, for minor things, that's what we do here in this department. We plan. And those things then create the demand in the department for investment and for resources, and for arrangements, organization structures. When you hit something new like the global war on terror that is not conventional, there is not anything that has a comparable demand on our system for resources and for people and for dollars and investment. And what one has to do is to recognize that and find ways to fashion a substitute for that normal demand that gets competed in all of our various processes."

RUMMY'S FANCY LANGUAGE REFERS TO THE THREATS OUR COUNTRY FACES. HERE THEY ARE FROM THE LAST QDR:

North Korea, Iran, China, Syria and Venezuela.

I know that I stay awake nights worrying about the Koreans, Iranians, Chinese, Syrians and Venezuelans -- how about you?

LATEST INFORMATION ON THE QDR--NON-KINETIC YET ROBUST, AND LET'S GO CHINESE

A recent draft of the Quadrennial Defence Review, which outlines future threats to the US and the measures and weapons needed to counter them, and obtained by the trade journal Inside Defense, says the Pentagon wants to develop an expanded range of conventional and non-conventional weapons to deal with countries at a 'strategic crossroads.'

"To help shape the choices of countries at strategic crossroads, strengthen deterrence and hedge against future strategic uncertainly, the [Pentagon] will develop a wider range of conventional and non-kinetic deterrent options while maintaining a robust nuclear deterrent," it says.

While this draft does not single out any one country Rumsfeld has previously made clear that the Pentagon believes China is at a strategic crossroads. A Pentagon report on China published last year warned that its military development was disproportionate to the threats it faced.[HOW'S THAT FOR IRONY]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/38d3628e-8c4f-11da-9efb-0000779e2340.html

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IN AN INTERVIEW WITH NPR'S MELISSA BLOCK, RUMMY SAYS WE WON'T BE IN IRAQ FOREVER

BLOCK: There are also a large number of Iraqis, a majority I think, who would like to see U.S. troops out very quickly.

SEC. RUMSFELD: "Well of course, so would the majority of Americans. So would I. I don't know what you think about it, but the goal is not to stay over there. There are a bunch of people running around telling lies and saying oh, my goodness, they're there to get their oil, or they're there to stay there forever and occupy the country. That's utter nonsense."

BUT IT MIGHT TAKE FOREVER TO FIND BIN LADEN

BLOCK: Let me ask you this. President Bush called Iraq the central front in the war on terror, but of course it was Osama bin Laden who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, the attack on the USS Cole, the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Africa -- not in Iraq, in Afghanistan. What's happened to the hunt for bin Laden and why isn't that the central front in the war on terror?

SEC. RUMSFELD: "Well, you go to the FBI Most Wanted list and you'll see people who have been on there for 10, 15, 20 years. It's very hard to find a single individual."

IRAQ IS THE CENTRAL FRONT ON THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR AND THE POTENTIAL CALIPHATE LAUNCHING POINT (AND INCIDENTALLY HAS OIL AND WATER)

BLOCK: Is Iraq, though, a distraction from that hunt?

SEC. RUMSFELD: "Iraq is the central front of the global war on terror.

"Look, you have to appreciate that in this world there are a lot of Muslims, and there are a handful, a very small number, not millions, but thousands, who are violent extremists, who are determined to reestablish a caliphate in this world stretching from Indonesia through the Middle East, and to reject the role of women in their societies and to reject the West, and to conduct a clerical type government that tells everyone in that country how they must live their lives.

"Now, they're not going to surrender. They're determined to do that. And the United States, the way of life of the American people would be dramatically altered if we allowed that to happen. And they are determined to have Iraq and to use that as their launching point. And to the extent they're successful, ours will be a dark world, let there be no doubt. And to the extent they fail, it will be a much brighter world. You'll have a democracy in an important country, a country that has oil and water, that has an important history and will be an example of democracy for other countries in the region."

AND LATER, IN IRAQ, RUMMY AGAIN TALKS ABOUT THE TERRIBLE CALIPHATE WHICH THREATENS US ALL

"But what we're in is a global war on terror. It is a struggle in the Muslim religion between a small number of violent extremists who are determined to behead people and kill people and force the world to see things the way they see things, to try to reestablish a caliphate in the world, to overthrow moderate Muslim nations, to attack Western values and Western behavior and Western culture. They're a small minority. The overwhelming numbers of people in that religion are moderate and they aren't extremist and they aren't terrorists."

[CALIPHATE: the dominion of a caliph. CALIPH: a successor of Muhammed as temporal and spiritual head of Islam]

SO WE'RE IN FOR WAR WITHOUT END

"I would say it is a long war. It is not a short war. There will be a struggle that we're going to be engaged in for some time. And it is unconventional, it's irregular, it is not going to be large armies and navies massed against each other as in the last century.

"In this long war against terrorists and violent extremists -- and it will be a long war, let there be no doubt about it -- what makes our country so special is our free way of life and that, of course, is precisely what the enemies of freedom are trying to deny us.

"Put simply, the purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. People think that terrorists, the purpose is to kill people, but it isn't. It's to terrorize. It's to alter people's behavior. [ORANGE ALERT!!] It's to make free people be something other than free people. It's to try to alter our behavior in a way that will inflict their dark vision upon us. And let there be no doubt, if the United States were to withdraw from Iraq today the terrorists, emboldened by their victory, would attack us elsewhere in the region and at home in the United States."

[How ironic that all the blood and treasure spent in Iraq trying to expand OUR 'caliphate' has resulted in a theocratic regime aligned with Iran.]

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RUSH LIMBAUGH GIVES RUMMY SOME 'EXCELLENCE IN BROADCASTING'

LIMBAUGH: I know, and I try to put myself in your position. If I were Secretary of Defense or a member of this Administration, and I know you're informed on a daily basis on the media, you see it, you talk to them, you deal with them. It's got to be, as I put myself in your shoes, frustrating. And you've come under personal attack throughout all of this for so many things, from Abu Ghraib and so forth. I just wanted to say to you personally, I think you're a statesman and I think you've given so much of your life to public service, and I think people need to know what it's like to sit up and take the swings and arrows that you are taking while not wavering and compromising your beliefs and fortitude. I'm glad to have the chance to say that to you.

AND RUMMY SHYLY ADMITS THAT, YES, HE DOES REMIND HIMSELF OF GEORGE WASHINGTON

SEC. RUMSFELD: "You're very nice to say that.

"I must say the mood during a war historically has been difficult. George Washington was almost fired a couple of times. Abraham Lincoln was vilified. Franklin Roosevelt was called a traitor to the country and just terrible things said about him. And so too with Harry Truman during the Korean War. And Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War.

"I guess that's part of the nature of the public debate in a free society. And I guess the balance that one has to have is to recognize that throughout history we've seen this kind of debate and controversy, but that in those instances where we've stuck to the course and fulfilled our conviction, that this country has benefited. And the fact that we're here today means that most of our leadership over the decades has refused to quit and toss in the towel."

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SPEAKING OF BASES IN IRAQ, RUMMY GETS ALL CONFUSED ABOUT IRAQI GOVERNMENTS

"We have here a sovereign nation, and up until this most recent election and the process they are now going through to establish their new government, there hasn't been any government to talk to about their interests with respect to bases.

"So what we've been doing in working with first the Iraqi Governing Council, then the Interim Government and the Transitional Government, and passing over responsibility as you may know, we've I think transferred responsibility already for something like 17 bases to the Iraqis."

HIS PREVIOUS STATEMENT ON IRAQI GOVERNMENTS -- THEY'VE HAD FOUR "SINCE THE WAR ENDED"

"On the 15th we'll have that election. Thereafter they'll form a new government and then that government will be in for four years which is a good thing, there will be that kind of stability. It will be our fourth government since the war ended and the turbulence that occurs every time there's a change in government, of course, you lose a little ground. But with the four years ahead of them I think it's a good thing."

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RUMMY SAYS THE IRAQIS DON'T WANT US THERE

". . . in Iraq . . . The approval of the foreign forces is low, and not high. And fair enough. Most countries don't want an occupying power in their country."

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RUMMY SAYS THE WAR'S OVER

"On the 15th we'll have that election. Thereafter they'll form a new government and then that government will be in for four years which is a good thing, there will be that kind of stability. It will be our fourth government since the war ended and the turbulence that occurs every time there's a change in government, of course, you lose a little ground. But with the four years ahead of them I think it's a good thing."

RUMMY WILL CONTINUE HIS KILLING WAYS

"I have no plans to retire."

RUMMY PLUSSES UP BUT MAY NOT DRAW DOWN

"The hope is that the conditions will permit some drawdowns of troops. As you know, we plussed up considerably from 137,000, I believe, up to about 160,000 to be helpful during the election period, and we certainly expect to go back down to 137,000, and if conditions permit we can go below that. But time will tell. It's condition based."

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