How The Bush Administration Works – The Rumsfeld Story

May 2, 2008

The Facts

Time, in partnership with CNN, has published an article entitled “How Much Did Rumsfeld Know?“. The article is an exert from a book that Army General Ricardo S. Sanchez wrote entitled “Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story“. Sanchez says that Rumsfeld showed him a memo in April of 2006 that Rumsfeld had written which said that he, Rumsfeld, has absolutely no knowledge that CENTCOM (Central Command) and CFLCC (Coalition Forces Land Component Command) was to be withdrawn from Iraq in May & June 2003, or that he knew that Sanchez was in charge after the withdrawal. The memo went on to say that neither he, Rumsfeld, nor anyone higher in the administration knew these withdrawal orders had been issued, and that he was dumbfounded when he learned that Gen McKiernan was out of the country and in Kuwait, and that the forces would be drawn down to a level of about 30,000 by September. In the same memo, Rumsfeld admits the withdrawal was one of the biggest strategist mistakes of the war. Sanchez says the memo was nothing more than Rumsfeld trying to cover his own butt, along with President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, Colin Powell, and Vice President Dick Cheney. Rumsfeld wanted Sanchez to sign off on the memo and even tried to bribe Sanchez by suggesting that there was a big job waiting for him immediately after his forced (added) retirement from the Army. Sanchez refused to agree with the memo, and the civilian job was never offered again.

My View

So the Secretary of Defense is trying to tell us that he was not aware that 103,000 troops (71%) of the 133,000 were going to be withdrawn from Iraq? Talk about the epitome of “if you believe that, I’ve got some water front property in Arizona for sale”. But this shouldn’t come as any surprise to us about Rumsfeld. His entire political career has been based on one lie after another, and him finding scapegoats to blame for his failures. That fits right in with his president. Of course, those above him would have been very happy if Rumsfeld could have gotten Sanchez to sign off on the memo.

There have been hundreds of articles written that say that Bush will go down in history as the worse president this country has ever had. I have no doubt that many in his administration will also be included. Those that saw this fact materializing years ago, like Colin Powell, were smart enough to get out.

As of April 21, 2008, Bush had a 22% overall approval level, the lowest of any president in history; even lower than Richard Nixon after Watergate and Jimmy Carter after the Iranian hostage crisis. The vast majority of elected Republicans are distancing themselves from Bush. Over the past three months or so it’s been hard to even find Fox News touting Bush and his administration, although they are still promoting the Republican Party. The silence from the pro-Bush group has been deafening. Even Ed Rollins, famous Republican strategist, said that Bush was the most irrelevant president in his life time.

Bush may be stupid, but he is no dummy, although the latter may be arguable. He’s still out trying to push his agenda for his failed policies. I think he knows his legacy is already engraved in stone as a failure, therefore he’s given up on trying to build a positive one; or he thinks the Republican spin machine will take care of fabricating a positive legacy for him after he leaves office. In either case, each time he speaks in public, he furthers the conviction that he’s an utter fool. And “the Rumsfeld story” is just another chapter to support that.