Word: rumsfeld
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Heribert Hutterer, Vienna I am very glad that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld had no phone number for a person capable of leading the whole of Europe into the Iraq war. It was enough that they had Tony Blair's number...
...June 2003, just before the White House was transfixed by the Wilsons, Bush was told by the CIA that a classic insurgency was under way in Iraq. His Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, refused to acknowledge that. The war was criminally mismanaged for the next four years, until Rumsfeld was fired and David Petraeus was sent to Iraq to clean up the mess. Along the way, the situation in Afghanistan was criminally neglected as well. This remains an astonishing record of incompetence. Rove doesn't mention it at all. (See pictures of Karl Rove and George W. Bush...
...cleaner quickly went to work. He walked into the Pentagon alone. Inheriting many former Rumsfeld aides, Gates told them on his first day that he wouldn't be firing anyone. There was no time for confirmations, and he was leaving that day for Iraq. Gates brought a sense of relief, a feeling that an adult was back in charge.(See photos of world leaders on vacation...
...memoir Speech-less, Matt Latimer, a speechwriter for both Rumsfeld and Bush, describes Gates as "our Winston Wolf," the Harvey Keitel character in Pulp Fiction who comes to dispose of the bodies and take care of the bloody mess after an accidental killing. "Wolf was a case study of robotic efficiency, overseeing an elaborate cleanup while calmly drinking a cup of coffee," writes Latimer. "That's what President Bush wanted - a cold-blooded competent cleaner...
...were both clearly very hardworking students in school," says a Pentagon aide. They speak frequently on their secure phones, comparing notes before they go to the White House. They meet once a week and have lunch at either the Pentagon or State every month. ("The notion of Condi and Rumsfeld having lunch together? Or Rumsfeld and Powell?" says a Clinton staffer.) Not long after the war-council meetings drew to a close and Obama gave his West Point speech, I asked Clinton about Gates' methods. "He listens more than he talks. He is very careful about when he intervenes...