Rumsfeld On 2006 Election: "The Correction For That...Is An Attack"

[babylonsister]

:wow: I do have the ability to be surprised. Who knew, and why is this man allowed out of a cage?

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33506

Rumsfeld On 2006 Election: "The Correction For That...Is An Attack"
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2008-05-19 14:45.

By Jason Linkins, Huffington Post


An ongoing exploration of the documents related to the Pentagon's "message force multipliers" program has unearthed a clip of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggesting that America, having voted the Democrats back into Congressional power, could benefit from suffering another terrorist attack, and doing so in the presence of the very same military analysts who went on to provide commentary and analysis of the Iraq War.

As documented by Newsvine, it all went down at a valedictory luncheon Rumsfeld hosted for those analysts on December 12, 2006. Many of the "message force multipliers" named in the original New York Times piece were in attendance, including David L. Grange, Donald W. Sheppard, James Marks, Rick Francona, Wayne Downing, and Robert H. Scales, Jr. They were treated to an extraordinary conversation (Newsvine has highlights, the hour-long clip of which can be found here) with Rumsfeld, that included many jaw-dropping moments, such as Rumsfeld admitting that in Iraq, the U.S. "can't lose militarily, but...can't win by military means alone," an agreement that Iraq could use a Syngman Rhee-type dictator (because that's what democracy smells like!), and a lengthy passage where Rumsfeld jokingly offers a bottle of champagne to anyone who could kill Moqtada al Sadr. You sure don't see too many people joking on al Sadr these days!

But by far the most extraordinary part of this luncheon is the antipathy the gathered members exhibit toward the American people for having the temerity to vote the Democrats back into power. When Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong bemoans the lack of "sympathetic ears" on Capitol Hill, Rumsfeld offers that the American people lack "the maturity to recognize the seriousness of the threats." What's to be done? According to Rumsfeld, "The correction for that, I suppose, is {another} attack."

DELONG: Politically, what are the challenges because you're not going to have a lot of sympathetic ears up there.

RUMSFELD: That's what I was just going to say. This President's pretty much a victim of success. We haven't had an attack in five years. The perception of the threat is so low in this society that it's not surprising that the behavior pattern reflects a low threat assessment. The same thing's in Europe, there's a low threat perception. The correction for that, I suppose, is an attack. And when that happens, then everyone gets energized for another {inaudible} and it's a shame we don't have the maturity to recognize the seriousness of the threats...the lethality, the carnage, that can be imposed on our society is so real and so present and so serious that you'd think we'd be able to understand it, but as a society, the longer you get away from 9/11, the less...the less...

more...

[spanone]

1. rumsfeld should be in shackles and chains

[Peace Patriot]

7. Far from being in shackles, he's likely orchestrating Oil War II: South America

"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

I also think that his "Office of Special Plans" is alive and well in South America. There is strong evidence of the type of manufactured, cherry-picked disinformation we saw re Iraq WMDs and Saddam/9-11 now being used against democratic leftist leaders Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, and Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, and with the same motive--they control the largest oil reserves in the western hemisphere. Chavez and Correa are key leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution which has goals of social justice and regional self-determination. Yet more reasons for the Bush Cartel to loathe them.

There is also evidence of a COORDINATED disinformation campaign in the corporate news monopolies, who have been relentless in their tagging of Chavez as a "dictator" (for which there is no evidence whatsoever--zero, zilch--pure disinformation), and, more recently, that Chavez and Correa are somehow tied to "terrorists." Regarding the latter, I have seen headlines, ledes and text in the corporate press that have flabbergasted me, they are so OPPOSITE of the truth. I'm pretty savvy at reading corporate newscrap articles. Still, I'm shocked by this recent campaign. And it is very worrisome, because the Bush Junta and the corporate press don't tell lies like these for no reason.

The president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, recently called Chavez "the great peacemaker" (in connection with the Colombia/Bush Cartel effort to instigate a war between Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela this March). He has also said, "You can criticize Hugo Chavez on a lot of things, but not on democracy."

Not reported in the corporate press, cuz, you know, their readers/viewers would really wonder "WTF?" Peacemaker? Democrat?

The facts support Lulu. All the facts. There ARE no facts that say otherwise. The same is true of Correa--peacemaker, democrat. There is an on-going, coordinated campaign of disinformation to make you believe otherwise, to DENY you the facts, to confuse you, and to prep you for "swift action" by the U.S. in support of "friends and allies" in South America, as Rumsfeld puts it, in his Washington Post op-ed. The op-ed itself is disinformation--not only as to the title, and the content about Colombian "free trade" deal--but also about Hugo Chavez's efforts to obtain the release of hostages held by Colombia leftist guerrilla fighters, the FARC. It was this item that most clued me in to Rumsfeld's direct involvement in South America. The date of the article is the very weekend that the first two hostages were to be released, as the result of Chavez's diplomatic efforts and the REQUEST by Bush tool, Alvaro Uribe (fascist president of Colombia, former Medellin Cartel). Rumsfeld says that Chavez's efforts were "not welcome in Colombia," although they had been days before. As the weekend approached, Uribe abruptly withdrew his request, and BOMBED the location of the two hostages, as they were in route to their freedom, driving them on a 20 mile hike back into the jungle, back into captivity. Chavez got them out safely a few weeks later (and eventually got a total of six hostages released), despite this unbelievable treachery by Uribe and his funders ($5.5 BILLION in Bush/U.S. military aid).

Then Colombian bombed Ecuador--using U.S. surveillance and 500 lb. U.S. "smart bombs"--killing the chief FARC hostage negotiator, Raul Reyes, who was camped just inside Ecuador's border--the incident that almost started a regional war, and ended all hostage releases and hopes for peace in Colombia's 40+ year civil war against the poor. Now Uribe is wielding laptops supposedly seized from the bombed camp, and claiming they contain "evidence" that Chavez and Correa are "terrorist-lovers" (--the fodder for the latest, jaw-dropping lies in the corporate press). The real terrorists are Uribe, his political cohorts, and his military and paramilitaries, who have slaughtered thousands of union leaders, small peasant farmers, political leftists, voters, protesters, human rights workers and journalists, for one the worst human rights records on the planet.

This smells of Rumsfeld--treachery, dirty tricks, black ops, disinformation, warmongering, OIL. It has Rumsfeld's characteristics of of the "Big Lie" (repeatedly asserting the exact opposite of the truth), and creating chaos as an opportunity to grab resources.

And it fits well with his political solution here, mentioned in the OP: What Republicans need, for grand theft, is terrorism.

[Jim__]

2. "This President's pretty much a victim of success. We haven't had an attack in five years."

And such a success that is. After all, how many times in our history have we gone 5 years without an attack?

These people are complete idiots.

[marmar]

3. .... and he's probably not speaking metaphorically.

To quote Mike Malloy: "Have I said today how much I hate these people?"

[liberal N proud]

4. Here we have a terrorist running free on the street promoting another 9/11 style attack

All for the good of the GOP/Neocon dream of total control

[Sheets of Easter]

5. fucking scum.

:mad:

[pansypoo53219]

6. i feel safer

that he is gone. but i still am more worried than during ronny raygun.