OPINION - Rumsfeld, Apologize for Tenure at Pentagon?

"'Did you ever think about apologizing?'" by Steve Benen, Maddow Blog 5/17/2013

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apparently isn't done sharing his thoughts with the public just yet -- he'll even be on "Meet the Press" this weekend -- and he's published a new book, "Rumsfeld's Rules:  Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life."  It includes, without a hint of irony, the former Pentagon chief's belief that "it's easier to get into something than it is to get out."

Taegan Goddard flagged an exchange between Rumsfeld and Kai Ryssdal this week that stood out as especially interesting (thanks to my colleague Tricia McKinney for the heads-up).

Ryssdal:  I do wonder whether you read Robert McNamara's memoirs when they came out.  Obviously, the secretary of defense during Vietnam.

Rumsfeld:  I have not.  I served in Congress during that period.

Ryssdal:  Here's why I ask, that book was widely seen as an apology for his role in Vietnam.  And I looked in this book [Rumsfeld's Rules] pretty hard for any rule that you might have had about apologizing.  And I couldn't find one.

Rumsfeld:  And?  What's your question?

Ryssdal:  Did you ever think about apologizing?

Rumsfeld may not have fully appreciated the scope of the question, because his answer kind of meandered a bit.  "Well, my goodness," he replied.  "As Napoleon said, 'I've been mistaken so many times I don't even blush for it anymore.'  Sure, you see things that don't turn out the way you hoped."

I'm not sure this counts as an apology, but for those who look at his Pentagon (aka DoD) tenure with sorrow, grief, and crushing disappointment, it'll probably have to do.

POLITICS - A Look Back - The Cook in the Whitehouse

"The Psychology Behind the Worst Possible President" by Jane Smiley, Huffington Post

The article ends with.....

The small pathologies of Bush the candidate have, thanks to the purposes of the neocons and the religious right, been enhanced and upgraded. We have a bona fide madman now, who thinks of himself in a grandiose way as single-handedly turning the tide of history. Some of his Frankensteins have bailed, some haven't dared to, and others still seem to believe. His actions and his orders, especially about Iran, seem to be telling us that he will stop at nothing to prove his dominance. The elder Bush(es), Scrowcroft, Baker, and their friends, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gerson, and the neocons have made the monster and in the process endangered the country, the Constitution, and the world, not to mention the sanity of wretches like Jose Padilla (for an analysis of the real reason Gitmo continues to exist, see Dahlia Lithwick's article in Slate, here.

Read more at link.

POLITICS - Protecting Big Contributors At the Cost of American Lives

"Army shuns system to combat RPGs" by Adam Ciralsky, Lisa Myers & the NBC News Investigative Unit

Experts agree it might help save lives, so why isn’t it in the field?

Rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, are a favorite weapon of insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are cheap, easy to use and deadly.

Sixteen months ago, commanders in Iraq began asking the Pentagon for a new system to counter RPGs and other anti-tank weapons.

Last year, a special Pentagon unit thought it found a solution in Israel — a high-tech system that shoots RPGs out of the sky. But in a five-month exclusive investigation, NBC News has learned from Pentagon sources that that help for U.S. troops is now in serious jeopardy.

The system is called “Trophy,” and it is designed to fit on top of tanks and other armored vehicles like the Stryker now in use in Iraq.

Trophy works by scanning all directions and automatically detecting when an RPG is launched. The system then fires an interceptor — traveling hundreds of miles a minute — that destroys the RPG safely away from the vehicle.

And officials with the Pentagon’s Office of Force Transformation (OFT) agree. Created in 2001 by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, OFT acts as an internal “think tank” for the Pentagon and is supposed to take a more entrepreneurial — and thereby less bureaucratic — approach to weapons procurement and other defense issues, and to get help to troops in the field more quickly. OFT officials subjected Trophy to 30 tests and found that it is “more than 98 percent” effective at killing RPGs.

As a result, OFT decided to buy several Trophies — which cost $300,000-$400,000 each — for battlefield trials on Strykers in Iraq next year.

That plan immediately ran into a roadblock: Strong opposition from the U.S. Army. Why? Pentagon sources tell NBC News that the Army brass considers the Israeli system a threat to an Army program to develop an RPG defense system from scratch.

The $70 million contract for that program had been awarded to an Army favorite, Raytheon. Raytheon’s contract constitutes a small but important part of the Army’s massive modernization program called the Future Combat System (FCS), which has been under fire in Congress on account of ballooning costs and what critics say are unorthodox procurement practices.

Col. Donald Kotchman, who heads the Army’s program to develop an RPG defense, acknowledges that Raytheon’s system won’t be ready for fielding until 2011 at the earliest.

Bold emphasis mine

Yap, so in the meantime our American solders will continue to die so Raytheon can milk their contract, when "Trophy is a system that is ready — today... "

POLITICS - Conservative Denial

"Denial is a River in the Heart of the Republicans" by Devilstower, Political Cortex

We've all seen it. That smug little smirk on the face of Donald Rumsfeld as he addresses lesser mortals. That irritating two beat giggle that terminates a Bush sentence. That endless grin of Alberto Gonzales as he lies over and over. That look of air-headed superiority is the natural face of Conservatism -- the face that says they're right, you're wrong, and facts aren't even an issue.

If there's anything that conservatives are sure about it's, well, everything. They've been convinced for decades that they were the bearers of the secret flame, the guardians of truth, the holders of all the cards.

So what do you think will happen now that every single thing they've done has ended in utter disaster? Do you think they'll start to doubt themselves?

Buddy, you never met a conservative.

...there's more

Add, that in today's GOP, GOP = God's Own Party.

POLITICS - "GOP Trump Card" A Horror Story, Coming to Your Neighborhood

Staring: Newt Gingrich, Condoleezza Rice, and Donny Rumsfeld
Directed by G.W. Bush

"World War III: The GOP's Ultimate Trump Card?" by Randolph T. Holhut, OpEd News

We know that the Republican Party, the party of incompetence and corruption, is in big trouble heading into November's congressional elections.

We also know that fear is the only card the GOP has left to play.

That's why it makes perfect sense for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other right-wing luminaries to be saying right now that the United States is currently engaged in World War III.

It's not just hot air, though. They are floating a trial balloon for something that should send a chill down everyone's spine - transforming the current so-called war on terror from a limited war into a total reorientation of our society, economy and politics toward a total, all-out global war.

Gingrich recently told The Seattle Times that he wants President Bush to recognize that this nation is in a new world war and to say so.

Public opinion, Gingrich said, will change "the minute you use the language of World War III." He said the message then becomes, "OK, if we're in the third world war, which side do you think should win?"

Pre-show tickets now on sale at your local GOP offices. Price, your vote for GOP candidates next election.