Rumsfeld Lashes Out at Bush's Critics

[sabra]

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/27-08292006-704452.html

Rumsfeld Lashes Out at Bush's Critics
The Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday accused critics of the Bush administration's Iraq and counter-terrorism policies of trying to appease "a new type of fascism."

In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the administration's critics as suffering from "moral and intellectual confusion" about what threatens the nation's security and accused them of lacking the courage to fight back.

In remarks prepared for delivery to the American Legion's national convention, Rumsfeld recited what he called the lessons of history, including the failed efforts to appease the Adolf Hitler regime in the 1930s.

[marmar]

1. Uh, Bush's policies are a "new type of fascism."

What a waste of DNA Rumsfailed is.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. No Rummy, we're trying to fight 'a new type of fascism'...

the Bush administration and you Neo-cons!!

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Memo to Donald Rumsfeld: My name isn't Neville Chamberlin.

I believe you are begging the question and creating a fallacy in order to avoid facing the truth of your actions and how we can limit the damage you have created.

[maseman]

4. Gee golly willickers Don

You mubling, bumbling, fumbling fuck-off asshole. How dare you kill hundres of thousands of people needlessly in the Middle East (including our troops) and then call US Fascists? Fuck you. Please go jump off a VERY tall bridge. We hate you like poison.

[saigon68]

6. WOW DON'T CUT THE MORAN ANY SLACK

LOL

[Binka]

13. Gee Golly I LOVE YOU!

Great fucking rant :loveya:.

[colorado_ufo]

17. Thanks - that felt great!

Super rant.

[maseman]

23. I try not to lose it very often

but Rummy is pure evil. The nerve of him to say we are supporting fascists goes to show you how out of touch they really are. Rove is working some SERIOUS overtime.

[coalition_unwilling]

35. Pure evil or completely insane. I honestly can't decide between

the two and have decided Rumsferatu is both (if such is possible).

[maxsolomon]

5. the only people confused are you & your pals in the PNAC

moral & intellectual confusion my ass. "the beatings will continue until morale improves" is not a middle east policy.

of course this was said in SLC.

[yellowcanine]

7. "moral and intellectual confusion?" Rummy is projecting again. He really

should fire his therapist.

[Eurobabe]

27. precisely my first thought, projecting much Don?

[UpInArms]

8. But Then It Was Too Late

They Thought They Were Free

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after1933,between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know it doesn't make people close to their government to be told that this is a people's government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing to do with knowing one is governing.

What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

<snip>

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, "regretted," that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these "little measures" that no "patriotic German" could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.

...more...

[UpInArms]

11. more

"Once the war began," my colleague continued, "resistance, protest, criticism, complaint, all carried with them a multiplied likelihood of the greatest punishment. Mere lack of enthusiasm, or failure to show it in public, was "defeatism." You assumed that there were lists of those who would be "dealt with" later, after the victory. Goebbels was very clever here, too. He continually promised a "victory orgy" to "take care of" those who thought that their "treasonable attitude" had escaped notice. And he meant it; that was not just propaganda. And that was enough to put an end to all uncertainty.

"Once the war began, the government could do anything "necessary" to win it; so it was with the "final solution" of the Jewish problem, which the Nazis always talked about but never dared undertake, not even the Nazis, until war and its "necessities" gave them the knowledge that they could get away with it. The people abroad who thought that war against Hitler would help the Jews were wrong. And the people in Germany who, once the war had begun, still thought of complaining, protesting, resisting, were betting on Germany's losing the war. It was a long bet. Not many made it."

[54anickel]

26. That gave me the "willies".

..."One had no time to think. There was so much going on." "Your friend the baker was right," said my colleague. "The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your "little men", your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to.

[grytpype]

9. If it's so important to win in Iraq, why didn't he send enough troops?

When is someone going to ask him that?

He lost the war because of his horrible decisions. And now he wants to blame his critics?

Why doesn't anyone ask him any questions?

[rhiannon55]

10. "a new kind of fascism"

Would that be the kind of fascism that hides behide a facade of democracy? Would that be fascists who go on and on about the values of freedom and liberty while quietly turning their country into a police state?

What does he mean by "a new kind of fascism", I wonder? :patriot: :sarcasm:

[whosinpower]

12. Too funny

Because Iran has not invaded anyone.....unlike Hitler.
Nor has Iran threatened to invade anyone.

And the more entrenched the US becomes in the middle east with its abhorrent foreign policy - the more Iranians flock to the radical right wing of Islamic fanaticism.

See - here is the crux of the matter....
Lebanon. Maybe you figured it was Iraq - and that certainly has something to do with it - but Lebanon removes all naysayers and doubt.

That is all you need to know....Lebanon - a newly elected democratic government that finally had the yoke of occupation lifted - has been blown back 20 years of progress - bombed to dust by Israel. Any idiot living in the region would reasonably think that democracy does not keep you safe, and being a US ally increases the risk. And the thought that a democracy would not invade another soveriegn nation is folly - utter Bush folly.

[coalition_unwilling]

36. Bush is to Iraq as Hitler was to Poland (n/t)

[gratuitous]

14. Real brave before a canned audience, Mr. Rumsfeld

Care to repeat those comments under oath before a hostile committee chairman? Because you're going to get your chance come January. Pack a lunch, because it's going to be a long motherfuckin' day.

[VegasWolf]

15. "a new type of fascism." There goes Rummy projecting again. nt

[Tellurian]

16. Lashes OUT? What in the world is wrong with these people?

Do you also HIT children to make them STOP crying?

Seems lashing out, threatening (Cheney), and violence are all these people know.

VIOLENCE to bring PEACE?

[classysassy]

18. One word descrices Bushco

CRAZY

[CoffeeCat]

19. Rumsfeld: Bush foes lack courage on terror (CNN)

What a self-absorbed, pseudo-elitist, scum-sucking, myopic, bungling old man that Rumsfeld is.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/29/rumsfeld.ap/index.html

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday accused critics of the Bush administration's Iraq and counterterrorism policies of lacking the courage to fight terror.

In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the administration's critics as suffering from "moral and intellectual confusion" about what threatens the nation's security.

In remarks prepared for delivery to the American Legion's national convention, Rumsfeld recited what he called the lessons of history, including the failed efforts to appease the Adolf Hitler regime in the 1930s.

"I recount this history because once again we face the same kind of challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism" he said.

(more at link)

[stepnw1f]

20. A Pampered Chicken Hawk Talks about "Courage".. WTF!

Somebody place this guy in a straight-jacket.

[Horse with no Name]

21. And Republicans lack the intelligence and fortitude to

fix the mess THEY have created. All they know how to do is make is worse and then blame Democrats.
They need to be replaced NOW.

[tandot]

22. Majority of Americans "suffering from moral and intellectual confusion"???

The arrogance of that incompetent a**hole is astonishing.

And "...critics of the Bush administration's Iraq and counter-terrorism policies of trying to appease 'a new type of fascism'"...actually, not true either. We are trying very hard to fight the "new type of fascism" brought to us by Bush and the neocons.

[MarinCoUSA]

24. Death. Taxes. Repuks lying about taxes and getting WWII analogies wrong.

Ah life's two, nay four new certainties.

[Barrett808]

25. I love headlines like this; they show how desperate * is becoming

Now, anybody taking bets on the October Surprise?

[teryang]

28. The promoter of torture, rendition, GITMO cages, Abu Ghraid...

...and unprovoked invasion accuses others of "moral and intellectual confusion."

[diamidue]

29. Critics of the Bush Administration??

Wouldn't that include about 95% of life on earth?

[coalition_unwilling]

37. Dont' forget to include rocks and other geologic formations like

icebergs, which also have a real axe to grind against BFEE :)

[rodeodance]

30. "---fascism."--the Repugs learned a new word --faddish aren't they!

[Rex]

31. Oh please, every day that Rummy stays as SoD, is another seat lost

in the House to Dems. That is how much damage he does the GOP. Which is a good thing if ya think about it. Any respectable WH would have canned his ass long ago.

Rummy, just shut up jeez. You don't have the intellect to even discuss such things. Hush now and let the grown-ups try and fix this fucking mess YOU'VE made. You ignorant little child. Shush now.

[BigDDem]

32. Is this the same Rummy

that knew (exactly) where the WMD's were?

[rhiannon55]

38. Weren't they north, south, east and west

of Baghdad, approximately? :rofl:

[arewenotdemo]

33. Goebbels dismisses war critics

Nazi minister suggests critics "both morally and intellectually confused".

[coalition_unwilling]

34. Rumsfeld is the fascist, not critics of BFEE. If he's so convinced

he's correct, why doesn't he propose bringing back the draft? (With apologies to Randi Rhodes) The big chicken shit!