Re: Rumsfeld, et al
It took half a century to figure out how to deter German aggression and now Rumsfeld seeks to topple the shaky German leadership by making them out to be pacifistic sissies.
In any previous administration, a defense secretary more outspoken than his boss would get kneecapped, but old Donnie not only channels Reagan, but it's quite clear now he thinks he is the President. I suspect he may be right.
He decries the UN and dismisses its relevance because 80% of its countries are on his side, a few have reasonable objections, some are angling for a piece of the petrol action and a few are just plain goofy. Consider the Jamaicans. They'd launch 2000 cruise missiles packed with rum and ganja at Baghdad and have that country democratized in a week.
Nope, Donnie wants 100%, even though Hussein's already outlasted two decades and two major wars with nary a scratch on his personal hide, and is likely to do so again, no matter how many BaghDaddios and BaghMommios get shocked and awed.
So when Hussein becomes a free agent, with a plumb clean getaway like that Bin Laden feller got, you and me and a dog named Free are supposed to feel a whole lot safer?
Declassified Memo to Rumsfeld: Mr.Whip-the-world-into-compliance, you can squeeze the Charmin all day long, but I assure you, Mr. Secretary, my noggin ain't near as soft as you're treating it. (And speaking of sissies, Donnie, remember your job title holds the key word 'Secretary' in it, so why not demonstrate some real competence by showing us how many words-per-minute you can type? Otherwise, what are you?)[/memo]
Secretary of Offense. There's no glossing over it. That's exactly his job and he's gonna get a high performance appraisal score because he's so successfully offended the military heads, old vets, half of Europe, the Middle East, more than 40% of fully patriotic Americans, the Pope, and rumors have it that he's even got Mr. Fred Rogers finally using the 'darn' word.
The UN is fulfilling its mission fully. Which is not to be a US puppet. Losing a close vote doesn't warrant such critique, if it happens.
NATO, on the other hand, has a dubious value, now that it means "an assortment of countries allied with a chest-pounding bully". But it'll survive because the remora have no other shark to choose from.
The UN has a demonstrated usefullness. It has its flaws; it has to be able to define internal sanctions on members' assignments, when outward sanctions are in force. But it is sheer arrogance to treat it in the contemptuous way Rumsfeld has.
The 'bold' and 'masterful' current administration has articulated a rationale for regime change in Iraq, but it's now trying to manipulate one in Germany. But the real fault for the intransigence of a handful of members is in the failure of the Bush administration to articulate a consistent rationale, which is necessary to make the case that war exceeds the sufficiency of containment.
Since August, it's dangled, in succession, an argument that Iraq could have a nuke in mere months, that they have clear and convincing evidence of WMD development, that they have proof of the Al Qaida/Hussein connection. What they have is proof of a parole violation, not the need for capital punishment of the Iraqi military and the Iraqi populace while Hussein slinks off into the night.
They produced satellite photos (though there's been past indications of satellite photo doctoring with this crowd, they produced phone conversations of somebody or other, and they provided evidence of evasion and coverup, suggesting a high probability of the existence of chemical weapons and maybe biological.
They did not produce evidence of nuclear imminence, their Iraqi/Al Qaida evidence has been regularly refuted by CIA officials, and the 'clear and convincing' has been downgraded to the 'plagiarized and outdated'.
They didn't need to prove that Hussein was a wretched excuse for cellular multiplication and a danger to everyone within his reach; they simply failed to prove his reach extended far enough.
So now they're forced to go to plan D (and E? and F?). What are they? Well clues can be found here:
pbs.org
"To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence.
Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy. Next best is to disrupt his alliances by diplomacy. The next best is to attack his army. And the worst policy is to attack cities." --Sun Tzu; The Art of War
Now Mr. Tzu was a right smart feller who could also provide lessons about blowback: One who is not acquainted with the designs of his neighbors should not enter into alliances with them. And about deception: He who knows the artifice of diversion will be victorious. Such is the art of manuevering.
What the Rumsfeld administration is doing is deception. The two deceptive keys to gaining the UN Good Housekeeping Seal of Invasive Procedures will take place in grey backrooms with France and Russia and China, and in public to convince more Americans to get on board the Maximum Pain Train.
France will get to share in the administration of Iraq's oil economy. Russia will get guarantees that Iraq's debts to it will be repaid, perhaps at 75 cents on the dollar. 'Follow the Money' is as much a part of the geopolitical emergency game as any other government process.
Or maybe one of them will get shut out of the poker hand while the real deal goes to China, who, after all, we could use an assist from in our dealings with that hornets nest the Rummy team stirred up in North Korea. Within two weeks, we'll see who's holding aces & eights and who's wielding the royal straight flash.
As to the public sales job, after the chutzpah shown with the Kuwaiti incubators a decade ago, it'll be interesting to see what gets cooked up this time.
After further research, I'll make my best guesses in the next couple of days.
-Kevin
reachm.blog-city.com |
