How Rummie Will Get Out of It

So, the soldier who asked Rumsfeld the questions about armor the other day turns out to have gotten the questions from a reporter.

While this really doesn't make any difference insofar as the outrageous comments made by the Secretary of Defense in response, this is how the conservatives will wiggle out of this.

They will obfuscate the issue by talking about how "wrong" it was for a reporter to sneak a question in like that, ignoring the real issue that Rumsfeld not only failed to answer the soldier's questions but showed a distinct lack of respect for troops going into combat and their needs for the proper equipment to do their job. It doesn't matter that Rumsfeld's response is just as wrong whether the question was given to the soldier by a reporter or not. The conservatives will set off a smoke grenade and the real issue -- the appalling lack of planning on the part of the Bush regime and Rumsfeld in particular -- will be lost.

As an aside, yesterday on NPR's All Things Considered, a reporter talking about the Rumsfeld incident perpetuated the myth that "no one saw this insurgency coming, so it took the administration by surprise," or words to that effect. Wha--? Let's see. I saw it coming. I know people who saw it coming. I saw people on TV before the war who saw it coming. In fact, I don't know how you could not have seen it coming. I mean, the very last time the US tried something like this it lost to the insurgency, in a little country called Vietnam!

If Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, and Bush failed to account for a post-invasion insurgency, they are either idiots (Bush) or willfully ignorant (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney). Willfull ignorance that costs 1000 soldiers, and counting, their lives is horrific. For troops to still be serving underneath such a regime is a travesty.

And this, from NPR, a bastion of the "so-called liberal media." Yeah, right.