Repentance is different: The former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used his war memoirs to the general reckoning, he blasphemes of George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice pulls her to Gerhard Schröder and Jacques Chirac. ruminate about their own mistakes? To him, waste of time. Robert McNamara was 79 years old when he apologized for the Vietnam War.
"We were wrong, terribly wrong," former U.S. defense secretary wrote in 1995 in his memoirs. "And we owe future generations a statement as to why this was so." After his resignation, he took almost three decades to admit the painful insight. Donald Rumsfeld is 78 years old, but only for four years, no more Pentagon chief.
He also stepped down, while still tens of thousands of U.S. troops were fighting on two foreign fronts and fell. But he is no Robert McNamara. Rumsfeld's memoirs, since Tuesday in U.S. trade, do not contain the slightest hint of self-criticism, much less excuse. On the contrary: The 815-page tome is one clue to another, even glorious, hopeless and resentful.
Whether it is Iraq or Afghanistan to Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib torture or: Rumsfeld, in his known-condescending manner, can ungeschn anyone - except himself Even former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder gets off his fat, in a few short, sharp digs: The resistance Schroeder and former French President Jacques Chirac against the Iraq war in 2003, wrote Rumsfeld, Saddam Hussein had only given "a false sense of security" and "without doubt a war more likely rather than less likely to make." Schröder is at least better off than Chirac: The Rumsfeld describes as "a man of bottomless cynicism that has become the anti-Americanism was a reflex." "Known and Unknown" Some of these icy envelope is in book form: semi-billing, semi-justification and the trend of the autobiographical historical misrepresentation by members of the recent U.S. government.
Rumsfeld had a remarkable career: He was, as he lifted out can not help themselves, both the youngest U.S. defense secretary (from 1975 to 1977, under Gerald Ford) and the oldest (from 2001 to 2006, under George W. Bush). During this time he found himself meticulously every contradiction, every insult, every press criticism, failure of others - only to now pay all your bills at once. The list of people, of which Rumsfeld betrayed, disappointed or just annoyed found is a long one: George Bush Senior ("increasingly unpopular") Condoleezza Rice ("an academic, you know"), John McCain ("irascible") , the secret services ("misinformed"), the General Staff ("slow"), the UN ("their own charter was not fair"), Washington (155 square kilometers, surrounded by reality ").
The rest of the Bush administration portrays Rumsfeld as a gang of yes-men, armed necks and schemers. Above all, Colin Powell ("inclined to say nothing") he finds nothing but contempt: the mistakes in Iraq had gone mainly on the account of his ministry. Meticulously recorded vilification Only his "faithful assistant," Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney finds Rumsfeld's full sympathy.
Even his last employer Bush Junior, he met with favor - but even that only with meticulously recorded, degrading restrictions. Flanked by a signing tour and the simultaneous release of more than 2,000 messages from his personal library ("The Rumsfeld Papers") that span the entire life memories Rumsfeld.
But he devotes more than half, significantly, the period after 11 September 2001. The terrorist attacks, Rumsfeld witnessed at the Pentagon, he did not last as a personal history of fracture. So much so that he on that day, "which seemed like the longest of my life, totally forgot to call his wife.
What he did not forget, was to put a tiny piece of debris of the American Airlines aircraft, which had just driven into the Pentagon to put in your pocket - as a talisman and nachfühlbares argument for what should follow. Just as Rumsfeld it later - even at the cost and without scruples Bush - is that he was after 9 / 11, the voice of reason in government.
He was Bush's slogan of "war on terror" has always been as condemned as the general desire for revenge: "We should avoid personalizing the war." Revisionism soaked each chapter. For all the decisions that have since been exposed as a data subject to manipulation, Rumsfeld has an explanation ready that he himself perfectly, if not, leaves prophetic.
Or is he just shrugs his shoulders, true to his nonchalant quip of 2003 on Nachkriegsplünderungen in Iraq: "Stuff happens." Iraq's mass destruction weapons? "Bad intelligence", especially from CIA Director George Tenet. No post-war planning for Iraq? The have screwed up the first U.S. civilian administrator Paul Bremer.
Not enough soldiers on the double-front Iraq / Afghanistan? The generals have never asked for more. Even in an exclusive interview with U.S. network ABC on Monday, his first TV interview since 2006, denied Rumsfeld all responsibility - in contrast to Bush, the long lack of Iraqi troops recently in his own memoirs as "the most fateful error of the war had known.
"Possible" that incited from Rumsfeld. "Hard to say." Bush shot himself after Rumsfeld's presentation shortly after 11 September 2001 on the Iraq. In a four-on-one meeting in the Oval Office just 15 days after the attacks did Bush instructed him to update its war plans - but not only for Afghanistan, "He asked me to take the state of our military plans for Iraq under the microscope .
Bush had wanted "creative options". Own failings? Most a slip of the tongue bitter evil Rumsfeld about the resistance of Germany and France against these options. "An unfortunate position," he writes. The "elites in Paris and Bonn had probably misunderstood as" guardians of a civilized new world order.
" That the federal government as long resided in Berlin, is the disappearance of course - Germany is one of Rumsfeld, the remainder of the book to judge, as history anyway as U.S. military bases or deterrent. Rumsfeld shows no remorse for the Iraq war that has cost more than 4,400 U.S. soldiers' lives and 700 billion dollars: "The region of Saddam's brutal regime, free, has created a more stable and safer world," he insists.
Doubt? In all the years have him Bush "never once" asked whether the invasion "was the right decision." So why speculate. Even elsewhere, Rumsfeld has little insight. Torture of terror detainees? Nobody would have "done better" may be but it was primarily the CIA. The prison camp at Guantanamo Bay? Even Bush's successor, Barack Obama has been so since found no better solution.
The story, he writes triumphantly, had all their decisions confirmed by then. Regrets what Rumsfeld is to count on one hand and usually relatively insignificant. About Fleet statements such as "stuff happens" ("a mistake") or researching his claim that he knew where Iraq's weapons of mass destruction JURISDICTION ("a slip of the tongue").
Even what he regrets most in his tenure, the guilt of others. The abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib was only the work of "a small group of prison guards" have been, "which ran amok without proper oversight." Twice in five days he had offered Bush his resignation in 2004, but the said no. That is the case for "damaging distraction" has become in favor of the war critics.
"We were wrong, terribly wrong," former U.S. defense secretary wrote in 1995 in his memoirs. "And we owe future generations a statement as to why this was so." After his resignation, he took almost three decades to admit the painful insight. Donald Rumsfeld is 78 years old, but only for four years, no more Pentagon chief.
He also stepped down, while still tens of thousands of U.S. troops were fighting on two foreign fronts and fell. But he is no Robert McNamara. Rumsfeld's memoirs, since Tuesday in U.S. trade, do not contain the slightest hint of self-criticism, much less excuse. On the contrary: The 815-page tome is one clue to another, even glorious, hopeless and resentful.
Whether it is Iraq or Afghanistan to Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib torture or: Rumsfeld, in his known-condescending manner, can ungeschn anyone - except himself Even former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder gets off his fat, in a few short, sharp digs: The resistance Schroeder and former French President Jacques Chirac against the Iraq war in 2003, wrote Rumsfeld, Saddam Hussein had only given "a false sense of security" and "without doubt a war more likely rather than less likely to make." Schröder is at least better off than Chirac: The Rumsfeld describes as "a man of bottomless cynicism that has become the anti-Americanism was a reflex." "Known and Unknown" Some of these icy envelope is in book form: semi-billing, semi-justification and the trend of the autobiographical historical misrepresentation by members of the recent U.S. government.
Rumsfeld had a remarkable career: He was, as he lifted out can not help themselves, both the youngest U.S. defense secretary (from 1975 to 1977, under Gerald Ford) and the oldest (from 2001 to 2006, under George W. Bush). During this time he found himself meticulously every contradiction, every insult, every press criticism, failure of others - only to now pay all your bills at once. The list of people, of which Rumsfeld betrayed, disappointed or just annoyed found is a long one: George Bush Senior ("increasingly unpopular") Condoleezza Rice ("an academic, you know"), John McCain ("irascible") , the secret services ("misinformed"), the General Staff ("slow"), the UN ("their own charter was not fair"), Washington (155 square kilometers, surrounded by reality ").
The rest of the Bush administration portrays Rumsfeld as a gang of yes-men, armed necks and schemers. Above all, Colin Powell ("inclined to say nothing") he finds nothing but contempt: the mistakes in Iraq had gone mainly on the account of his ministry. Meticulously recorded vilification Only his "faithful assistant," Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney finds Rumsfeld's full sympathy.
Even his last employer Bush Junior, he met with favor - but even that only with meticulously recorded, degrading restrictions. Flanked by a signing tour and the simultaneous release of more than 2,000 messages from his personal library ("The Rumsfeld Papers") that span the entire life memories Rumsfeld.
But he devotes more than half, significantly, the period after 11 September 2001. The terrorist attacks, Rumsfeld witnessed at the Pentagon, he did not last as a personal history of fracture. So much so that he on that day, "which seemed like the longest of my life, totally forgot to call his wife.
What he did not forget, was to put a tiny piece of debris of the American Airlines aircraft, which had just driven into the Pentagon to put in your pocket - as a talisman and nachfühlbares argument for what should follow. Just as Rumsfeld it later - even at the cost and without scruples Bush - is that he was after 9 / 11, the voice of reason in government.
He was Bush's slogan of "war on terror" has always been as condemned as the general desire for revenge: "We should avoid personalizing the war." Revisionism soaked each chapter. For all the decisions that have since been exposed as a data subject to manipulation, Rumsfeld has an explanation ready that he himself perfectly, if not, leaves prophetic.
Or is he just shrugs his shoulders, true to his nonchalant quip of 2003 on Nachkriegsplünderungen in Iraq: "Stuff happens." Iraq's mass destruction weapons? "Bad intelligence", especially from CIA Director George Tenet. No post-war planning for Iraq? The have screwed up the first U.S. civilian administrator Paul Bremer.
Not enough soldiers on the double-front Iraq / Afghanistan? The generals have never asked for more. Even in an exclusive interview with U.S. network ABC on Monday, his first TV interview since 2006, denied Rumsfeld all responsibility - in contrast to Bush, the long lack of Iraqi troops recently in his own memoirs as "the most fateful error of the war had known.
"Possible" that incited from Rumsfeld. "Hard to say." Bush shot himself after Rumsfeld's presentation shortly after 11 September 2001 on the Iraq. In a four-on-one meeting in the Oval Office just 15 days after the attacks did Bush instructed him to update its war plans - but not only for Afghanistan, "He asked me to take the state of our military plans for Iraq under the microscope .
Bush had wanted "creative options". Own failings? Most a slip of the tongue bitter evil Rumsfeld about the resistance of Germany and France against these options. "An unfortunate position," he writes. The "elites in Paris and Bonn had probably misunderstood as" guardians of a civilized new world order.
" That the federal government as long resided in Berlin, is the disappearance of course - Germany is one of Rumsfeld, the remainder of the book to judge, as history anyway as U.S. military bases or deterrent. Rumsfeld shows no remorse for the Iraq war that has cost more than 4,400 U.S. soldiers' lives and 700 billion dollars: "The region of Saddam's brutal regime, free, has created a more stable and safer world," he insists.
Doubt? In all the years have him Bush "never once" asked whether the invasion "was the right decision." So why speculate. Even elsewhere, Rumsfeld has little insight. Torture of terror detainees? Nobody would have "done better" may be but it was primarily the CIA. The prison camp at Guantanamo Bay? Even Bush's successor, Barack Obama has been so since found no better solution.
The story, he writes triumphantly, had all their decisions confirmed by then. Regrets what Rumsfeld is to count on one hand and usually relatively insignificant. About Fleet statements such as "stuff happens" ("a mistake") or researching his claim that he knew where Iraq's weapons of mass destruction JURISDICTION ("a slip of the tongue").
Even what he regrets most in his tenure, the guilt of others. The abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib was only the work of "a small group of prison guards" have been, "which ran amok without proper oversight." Twice in five days he had offered Bush his resignation in 2004, but the said no. That is the case for "damaging distraction" has become in favor of the war critics.
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- SO THEY SENT ME AN ADVANCE COPY of Donald Rumsfeld's new book, Known and Unknown: A Memoir, and alth... (07/02/2011)
- Foreign Policy: Rumsfeld's Book Is Years Too Late (08/02/2011)
- Donald Rumsfeld's Claim Of Knowing Where Iraq's WMDs Were Was Just A 'Misstatement' (08/02/2011)
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