Arianna Huffington: What Keeps Don Rumsfeld Up at Night? Hint: It’s Not the Body Count in Iraq
Yahoo! News (m)
Arianna Huffington
Forget the escalating sectarian violence. Forget the rising influence of Iran. Forget the 100-Iraqi-deaths-per-day. Forget the 2,638 American dead.
For Don Rumsfeld the problem isn’t that we are not winning the war in
Iraq, the problem is that we are not properly spinning the war in Iraq.
Along with comparing his critics to Hitler appeasers, the beleaguered Defense Secretary has spent the early part of this week making the case that the horrific state of affairs in Iraq is really just a case of bad PR.
“The enemy is so much better at communicating,” he whined to a gathering of Veterans of Foreign Wars. “I wish we were better at countering that because the constant drumbeat of things they say — all of which are not true — is harmful.”
And during a question-and-answer session with Navy personnel, he bemoaned the ability of terrorist groups — who, according to Rummy, have “media committees” — to “manipulate the media,” saying, “That’s the thing that keeps me up at night.”
That’s all you need to know about Don Rumsfeld. He’s not losing sleep over the bloody reality in Iraq (and his role in creating it); he’s tossing and turning over the fact that he hasn’t been able to package that bloody reality more effectively. It’s all about appearances. [more]