Toxicman

            I learned a new word today. Mephitic! It means foul smelling, noxious, poisonous, putrid, and rank. Mephitic! Just the word to describe Known and Unknown: A Memoir by Donald Rumsfeld. But don’t take my word for it. Far smarter and more eloquent people than I think that Donald Rumsfeld is one of the most toxic men to have ever served in our government and that his new book is a delusional exercise in trying to convince all of us to live in the same psychotic reality that Mr. Rumsfeld has lived in for a very long time. No less than the respected journalist; the word “respected” connected to a journalist is not used lightly here; Bob Woodward writing last Tuesday as a guest columnist for the magazine Foreign Policy’s  Best Defense feature had this to say about the new Rumsfeld book. “Rumsfeld's memoir is one big clean-up job, a brazen effort to shift blame to others -- including President Bush -- distort history, ignore the record or simply avoid discussing matters that cannot be airbrushed away. It is a travesty, and I think the rewrite job won't wash.”

I am tempted to leave the whole thing right there but I think I have come up with a way to use Mr. Rumsfeld’s rancid memoir in a way to let in some fresh air. By all means read it but at the same time read Andrew Cockburn’s Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy. This is an important companion piece to Rumsfeld’s attempt to paint himself as an American Hero. Cockburn doesn’t so much as do a hatchet job on Rumsfeld as a dissection with copious notes, references, and attestations.

Nowhere in all this is Rumsfeld’s evil genius for ignoring the truth and passing blame onto everyone around him more apparent than the whole topic of Weapons of Mass Destruction and what part they played in being the excuse for the war and the way the government convinced the American people that this was our first strike back in retaliation for 911. He wraps it all in the flag, democracy, and freedom to such an extent that one could expect to see his bust carved on Mount Rushmore. Mr. Cockburn’s book might leave you with the thought that Rumsfeld’s visage would be more appropriately carved on lump of excreta and flushed away.

Rumsfeld sticks to a story that almost everyone in the world already knows is not true. We didn’t invade Iraq to destroy WMD and to bring the holy grails of freedom and democracy to the people of Iraq. We didn’t invade Iraq in order to depose the Saddam Hussein because he gave logistical support, money, and refuge to al-Qaida. It turns out that Hussein might not have personally known anyone in al-Qaida or been in contact with anyone at the bottom of 911. No, we did not invade Iraq for any of those reasons. The real reason might seem, at first, a little complicated but when you think about it, it was staring everybody in the world right smack dab in the face.

It was the reason Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and the rest of the neo-cons decided was necessary for the building of the, so called, new world order with the USA on top and the neo-cons in control. The real reason we invaded Iraq can be summed up in one word, OIL!

Here is a very short version of how that worked. The region was/is very unstable. In order for the USA to construct the new world order we need oil, and plenty of it, to flow easily and cheaply to the USA. The region is so unstable that we can’t count on our friends in the area to be in control for the foreseeable future and it could very easily happen that the control of the oil could slip into hands that are not friendly to the USA: hands that would not sell the oil to us or charge us an exorbitant price so as to cause catastrophic damage to our economy. We needed an excuse to put a large army in the region so, if things go from bad to worse we could protect the interest of the USA; by that you can read, take and hold the oil fields by force if necessary because we already have the army there to do it. Saddam Hussein was just the excuse. In fact we now have an occupying force on both ends of the region, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, and it doesn’t look like we will be leaving anytime soon.

Read both books, Rumsfeld’s Known and Unknown and Andrew Cockburn’s Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy. The dots will be connected, the picture will be a lot clearer and you will be a better person for the effort.

Lastly, I’m very conflicted about buying Rumsfeld’s book because I don’t want him to get rich off this smelly pack of lies. He said he is donating all the profits to charity. I’m just not sure the charity, The Donald Rumsfeld Foundation, it exactly what I had in mind. I went to the Library which is a little bit better than buying it myself. The Library, however, does have to buy its copies from the publisher albeit at a reduced price which makes me feel a little better. I offer the Library alternative because I can’t, in good conscience, recommend that you steal it.

Previously published in 365ink.