Arianna doesn't agree with me about Russert yesterday. I thought he asked tough questions of Rummy.
06.26.2005Arianna Huffington
This Week on Russert Watch: Secretary No Know
This is how Tim Russert opened Meet the Press today:
Our issues this Sunday: the war in Iraq, growing concerns among the public, which are being echoed in the halls of Congress. What should the American people know about our future involvement in Iraq? With us, the man who runs the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
Great question, Tim. We’re 28 months into this war -- so, yes, it’s time to start asking what should the American people know.
Today’s show, though, might as well have been called Meet the Press Conference because it’s unclear what more we got out of Donald Rumsfeld than we would have gotten if he had just given one of his preening, cutesy press conferences.
Here is the real question: after watching today’s show, did you come away knowing one thing that someone who made the wiser choice of sleeping in would not know?
The answer is actually yes -- but that new knowledge came from the rock star who was the show’s second guest. Unfortunately, Bono is not running the Pentagon and this disastrous war.
Every single one of Rumsfeld’s answers was, in fact, designed to confuse, obscure and obfuscate. That’s his shtick. And E-ZPass Russert’s is to let him slide right on by.
Here’s a selection -- read it and ask yourself if you’ve learned anything from it:
RUSSERT: Sixty percent -- six-zero -- of the American people say that things are going badly in Iraq. Are they correct?
RUMSFELD: You know, the suggestion that things go nicely or good in a war is just not the case. Wars are tough things, and I think the concern on the part of the public in every war, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the World War -- two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam -- it's always been the case. ...
And Russert lets him get away with waxing lyrical on the nature of war while ignoring the fact that some wars are won and some are lost. He even lets him get away with this gem:
RUMSFELD: The terrorists have no vision, they have no Ho Chi Minh, they have no Mao, they don't have any cause. Zarqawi is a Jordanian, he's a foreigner. ... That isn't any long-term formula for success.
Shouldn’t Russert have asked him when Ho Chi Minh became our standard of leadership? And on Rumsfeld’s last point, shouldn’t Russert have asked him whether the terrorists, in fact, have more of a long-term formula for success than we do?
Then came this exchange, which illustrates one of Rumsfeld’s go-to evasive techniques:
RUSSERT: The Times of London reports this morning that there have been two meetings between Iraqi and U.S. officials and some members of the insurgency. Is that accurate?
RUMSFELD: Oh, I would doubt it. I think there have probably been many more than that. …
Then Rumsfeld elaborates that they are not reaching out to insurgents “with blood on their hands”. And Russert never asks him who these non-violent insurgents are. Did we miss the news about the creation of a non-violent political wing of the insurgency?
At least we can talk numbers, right? Wrong:
RUSSERT: How many of those [200,000 Iraqi security forces] will be these combat-ready battalions?
RUMSFELD: Well, you can't do it that way. You simply have to sit down and say, "What are you trying to achieve with what types of units, and where are they in their progress?"
Yes, exactly. So when are you going to “simply sit down” and do that? How about the 29th month of the war? Or is that too soon? (But, of course, these are not questions Russert asked.)
At one point, Russert asks Rumsfeld if “a robust insurgency” was on the list of 15 things that could go terribly wrong in Iraq that he had given the president before the war. And Rumsfeld, unbelievably, replies: “I don’t remember.” And Russert, all-too-believably, lets it slide and moves on.
In the show’s final exchange, he asks Rumsfeld if he agrees with Rove that liberals did not stand up for America against the enemy. “My impression was that he was talking about an organization called MoveOn.org, and said so,” Rumsfeld spins. And here is Russert’s response: “Mr. Secretary, as always, we thank you for sharing your views.”
Gee, yes, thanks Mr. Secretary for sharing your views that war is tough, that we can’t really know anything about it, and that only time will tell.
Well, sixty percent of Americans believe that time has already told. They believe that there are things you can know about the war, and what they know is that they can no longer trust their leaders to tell them the truth about it.
And after watching Meet the Press Conference this morning, one thing I do know is that if that moment of truth is ever going to happen, it’s not going to be on this show. |
