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Drake Tungsten
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Knee deep in alien womyn...
Oct 2001
time: 14:27
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quote:
I know that I know that Rummy's my hero
by Stephen Pollard
Forget the usual faux pas. Ignore the standard forms of social death. I used to think that I had only one way of guaranteeing that I could stun anyone into horrified silence: telling them that I think we would all be safer if we could carry guns.
But over the past few months I have discovered a far more potent weapon of public self-destruction. I tell people that Donald Rumsfeld is my political hero.
The reaction is always — always — the same. First there is a belly laugh. Then that turns into a nervous giggle as they notice that I am not laughing with them. The giggle then dries up into a two or three-second silence, and the colour drains from their cheeks. If they are sitting down, they put their head in their hands; if they are standing, they freeze. And then they say it: “Oh. My. God. Are you being serious?”
I am, indeed. Let me spell it out for you, in case you think that I am joking. The American Defence Secretary is my hero.
What makes people’s reaction so bizarre is that, whatever the attributes for which most of us look in a politician, Donald Rumsfeld has them all. He always says exactly what he means. He tells it as he sees it. He has decades of experience in the real world. He is witty. He is imaginative. He thinks for himself. He inspires loyalty. Even better, he is prepared to stand up for his beliefs and treat the smug superiority of the trimmers, appeasers and Euro-elites with the contempt that they deserve. What more could one want in a politician?
Ah yes, I have just remembered one other thing that you would want in a politician: he is right. Always.
And that is the root of it, of course. The real reason why Rummy inspires such contempt among bien pensant types is that they cannot bear the thought that he is right. They loathe him because the that fact he is right boomerangs back at them all their self-righteous, haughty, “Americans are so coarse” complacent beliefs.
Donald Rumsfeld is the living, breathing proof that they are wrong.
I know exactly what would have happened if the war plan — Rumsfeld’s war plan, as we were so frequently told when the doom-mongers thought that it was all going wrong, but which in victory is, of course, now Tommy Franks’s — had turned out to be a huge mistake. He would have been endlessly pilloried. It was barely a week ago, after all, that we were told by supposedly well-informed experts that Rumsfeld and his associates were for the highest of high jumps. But because everyone loves a loser, in ten years or so he would have been the beneficiary of the Tony Benn effect: we would look back and chuckle at his remarks — batty, of course, but dontcha just luvim?
“As we know, there are known knowns,” as Rumsfeld said. “There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know.”
Benn is loved precisely because he is wrong. If he had been right about anything, he would not be cuddly tea-drinker of the year, he would be “hard man of the Left”.
Donald Rumsfeld suffers from a critical impediment: he is right. He was right about “shock and awe”. He was right about his war plan. He was right about coalition troops being hailed as liberators. He was right about old and new Europe. He was right about. . . oh, take your pick.
That is the thing about Donald Rumsfeld: he is right, you are wrong and you are just going to have come to terms with it.
Stephen Pollard is a senior fellow at the Centre for the New Europe, in Brussels |
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/articl...-647988,00.html
I've been torn in my view of Rumsfeld for some time now. I tend to be closer to Powell in my political views, so Rumsfeld is supposed to be my natural enemy. I could never hate him, however; in fact, I found myself liking him more and more as time went on. Now I know why. He does represent everything that I want out of a leader. He's intelligent, dynamic, humorous and brutally honest. And he is right, even when I wish that he wasn't.
I've come to terms with my love for Rummy. Can you? Just admit the man into your heart and your world will become a better place...
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Lord Merciless
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Why is Rummy evil? Or maybe the world is truly an evil place, and he is just being realistic?
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Lord Merciless
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Politics, partisanships, sigh...
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dannubis
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Ghent
Apr 2002
time: 06:27
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don't bother
if rumsfeld is your hero than everbody is entitled to have their own oppinion ... and to shut up
Last edited by dannubis on 16-04-2003 at 12:47
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Lord Merciless
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quote:
Originally posted by CyberGnu
Rumsfeld scares the crap out of me right now. Not as much as Bush, but just about as much as Ashcroft... |
I don't think he is scary.
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Lord Merciless
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CyberGnu is probably one of the people who think "that if we attack the terrorists, they will hate us more and will commit more terror acts..."
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Lord Merciless
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quote:
Originally posted by CyberGnu
But in a case like Iraq, where there still isn;t any connection between Saddam and Al-quida, what is the motivation? Do you actually believe the US has REDUCED the threat level against the US by the actions of the last month? |
The Iraqi situation is too premature to conclude. We will know more in a year. The campagn has been going well so far. If the reconstruction goes well, long term threat level goes down. If not, it goes up.
As for the short term threat level, I don't think it has changed in the slightest way. Al-Qaeda are hatching their plans regardless of our actions in Iraq.
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CyberGnu
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of the Virtual Serengeti
Apr 1999
time: 05:27
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quote:
The Iraqi situation is too premature to conclude. We will know more in a year. The campagn has been going well so far. |
In Iraq, yes. But how about the rest of the arab world?
quote:
If the reconstruction goes well, long term threat level goes down. If not, it goes up. |
In best case, the US handles the reconstruction perfectly, and you are right. But so little is required to mess it up - the minute the first american oil company sets foot in Iraq, the US has lost the war.
quote:
As for the short term threat level, I don't think it has changed in the slightest way. Al-Qaeda are hatching their plans regardless of our actions in Iraq. |
And with the rest of the Arab world incensed, do you think al-Quida funding has gone up or down because of this? Several hundred arabs volunteered to defend Iraq against the US, what do you think they are doing now? Someone angry enough at the US to risk his life in the defense of Saddam, you think he will just go home and pick up his life where it started?
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All times are GMT. The time now is 05:27.
Apolyton Time is 00:27. |
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16-04-2003 11:45
Another falls victim to the Cybergnu tactic.
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