David Frum Slams Rumsfeld

From the conservative side, David Frum tackles the Donald Rumsfeld enigma vis a vis the GQ article:

"Why did Iraq go so very badly wrong – and why, having gone wrong, did it take so ruinously wrong for the administration to shift to a more successful course?"

Frum noticed the right wing blogosphere was virtually silent on the revelations in the article on how bad, ignorant and stubborn Rummie was about Iraq. Lack of self-critique is the GOP calling card.

In his own words, Frum ponders the negative influence:

"Imagine you are a general who has presented the secretary with a war plan requiring 300,000 men. Rumsfeld will incessantly push and probe: 'Are you sure you need so many? Why?' The general did not achieve high rank by disregarding hints from his civilian superiors. 'Maybe we can do with 260,000. Really? Still so many? What if you omitted this factor or that?' 'Call it 200,000.' That still seems awfully high … are you sure? OK, OK, 175,000. 'Very well general, if that’s your military opinion, I respect it.'"

And when situations like this led to disastrous results, Rummie was still asking the questions and never delivering the answers. Example after example, Rumsfeld is all about control, but not about listening or gathering perspective, rather cutting off his nose to spite his face. Not sending his people into NSC briefings, refusing help in negotiations with Jordan causing US airmen to fly 2.5 additional hours to avoid airspace, blowing off Paul Bremer after fighting for DoD to lead Iraqi reconstruction efforts once they started faultering.

For those of us who saw all these mistakes in real time and incredulously questioned the cabal in the White House who were running this failed war, Rumsfeld was a walking failure. A few years on, Frum is asking his fellow conservatives in massive denial about the total shitstorm brought on America by Rumsfeld:

"The record of the Rumsfeld years remains one of the highest obstacles to a Republican recovery. It's hard to imagine how we can achieve that recovery without coming to some kind of reckoning with this record - even if only an inward, private reckoning that will enable us to avoid such mistakes in future. But you cannot reckon with what you won't recognize."

Inward, private reckoning? What a crock. Sucks having to swallow all the bravado and attitude conservatives flaunted under Bush, knowing now, they were completely used.

Source: New Majority