Rumsfeld’s much-vaunted ‘courage’ was a smokescreen for lies, crime and death. By Richard Wolffe

By Dilip -

It is customary, at times like these, to gloss over the failures and foibles of recently deceased officials: to paint a portrait in broad brush strokes about their achievements and qualities and public service. In the case of the newly departed Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary who led the catastrophic war in Iraq, this would be a monumental dereliction of duty. And the old war criminal was a stickler for duty.

History unlikely to forgive Donald Rumsfeld’s Iraq warmongering

So let’s cast aside the nuanced but respectful formulations of the Washington Post (“one of history’s most consequential as well as controversial Pentagon leaders”) and the New York Times (“a combative infighter who seemed to relish conflicts”). Somehow those quibbles didn’t make it into the overwrought words of Rumsfeld’s former boss and enabler, President George W Bush, who praised his “steady service as a wartime secretary of defense – a duty he carried out with strength, skill and honor”.

“We mourn an exemplary public servant and a very good man,” he added. Donald Rumsfeld was not a very good man. He was the polar opposite, even on his own terms….

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/01/donald-rumsfeld-defense-secretary-lies-crime-death

Alfred McCoy: The crumbling delusion of Washington's endless world dominion

Steve Bannon Documentary, 'The Brink', Will Leave You Cold

Mohammed Hanif: The rest of the world has had it with US presidents, Trump or otherwise

Chauncey DeVega: Trump is mentally ill but our real sickness runs much deeper

America isn't breaking. It was already broken. By Andrew Gawthorpe // Why This Time Is Different. By Dahlia Lithwick

TOM ENGELHARDT: A World at the Edge




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