...or is Don Rumsfeld just scary/crazy?

There are no slow news days, just lazy bloggers. Just when you were all prepared to hear Gen. Petraeus tell you that another ten years or so of American interference in Iraq ought to bring stability, maybe, along comes Don. You may remember former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld as the appleheaded architect of America's stunning victory in the Middle East. Mr. Rumsfeld, thankfully retired from government service, is quoted in an article for GQ (Governmental Quagmire?) that Afghanistan is a "big success". That's more than can be said for Donald Rumsfeld. Don must have gone long on poppies this season because the only success in Afghanistan is in the opium trade. Apparently Don has forgotten the cardinal rule "Don't get high on your own supply". To be fair, Afghanistan is a big success... if you are a member of the Taliban. It's not like the "coalition of the browbeaten" is around to enforce the law. There are more soldiers at the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York than in Afghanistan. President Karzai controls about two zip codes in Kabul. The Taliban, war lords and various assorted evil-doers are running the rest. Bin Laden is opening a Club Med in Tora Bora. Mullah Omar is starting a minor league baseball team; the Kandahar Kushmen. But let us not discount Donald Rumsfeld. It was our Secretary of Defense who told every soldier at the Pentagon above the grade of sergeant to shut up when they advised him that 120,000 troops were not nearly enough to pacify the Sunnis and Shais once Saddam was history. His many insightful quotes during his cabinet tenure will surely be writ large when the legacy of George "The Decider" Bush is recorded. Remember his response to a reporter who inquired as to why no effort was made to prevent the looting of Iraqi historical treasures? Rumsfeld boldly asserted, "stuff happens". Or who could forget his omniscient prediction on how long the Iraq incursion would last? In Feb. of 2003 he opined, "It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months." Move over Nostradamus. And how's this for profound: "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me because, as we know there are known knowns; there are things we know we know.We also know that there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we know that we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns; the ones we don't know we don't know." Boy, what government agency wouldn't be proud to have that baby chiseled into their entry lintel? This man should be in jail for the criminal waste of 3,500 American lives. He has shown nothing but contempt for anyonewho doesn't see his warped vision of the future. I'm sure his stay at the Hoover Institute is assured because he clearly understands how to suck the energy out of anything he touches.