Closing Thoughts From Mr. Rumsfeld

When Donald Rumsfeld resigned the morning after the elections, it was obviously seen as a response from the White House to the Democrats' victory and voter anger over the war. The President spun this during his subsequent press conference, insisting it had been the plan either way for Rumsfeld to step down... an assertion contradicted by remarks less than a week earlier on the campaign trail that Cheney and Rumsfeld would serve for the remainder for his presidency.

Now it appears we may have gotten the truth (unintentionally) from Donald Rumsfeld himself. Rumsfeld told Sean Hannity- the only 'journalist' allowed to accompany him on his farewell trip to Iraq- that "the outcome of the election" caused President Bush to believe it would be "better for someone else to be leading this department with that new Congress". Translation: Scared of how Democrats would handle Rumsfeld and his record, the President showed him the door.

Either Bush is lying or Rumsfeld is. In this case, easy money's on Bush all the way.

More 11th hour honesty from Rummy came in an interview with conservative columnist Cal Thomas, on the issue of lumping the Iraq war rhetorically into the 'war on terror'. Asked about regrets with Iraq, Rummy responded thusly-

"I don’t think I would have called it the war on terror. I don’t mean to be critical of those who have. Certainly, I have used the phrase frequently. Why do I say that? Because the word 'war' conjures up World War II more than it does the Cold War. It creates a level of expectation of victory and an ending within 30 or 60 minutes of a soap opera. It isn’t going to happen that way. Furthermore, it is not a 'war on terror.' Terror is a weapon of choice for extremists who are trying to destabilize regimes and (through) a small group of clerics, impose their dark vision on all the people they can control. So 'war on terror' is a problem for me."

It was a problem for us too, but we were told we hated America. Does Rumsfeld hate America? Perhaps.

That uncharacteristic reality-acknowledgement from Mr. Rumsfeld also seems to me an on-the-way-out attack at the President (it's never fun when a puppet does away with his master), whose entire rhetorical rationale for continuing this disaster has been variations of trying to link it to the 'war on terror' in the minds of Americans. Next thing you know, Rumsfeld will be insisting that he didn't advocate the invasion at all... Oh, wait.

Finally, asked if he has any advice for his successor, Rumsfeld replied "I don't have any advice for him."