Donald Rumsfeld dies

If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.






















...

 

“Rumsfeld was the worst secretary of defense in American history. Being newly dead shouldn’t spare him this distinction. He was worse than the closest contender, Robert McNamara, and that is not a competition to judge lightly.”

How Rumsfeld Deserves to Be Remembered

 

Remember one day when he said the U.S. had $2.7 trillion unaccounted for and then the next day was 9/11? That was weird.

 

You never hear about anyone at the Pentagon being a Rumsfeld protégé or a Rumsfieldian school of thought holding any real sway. He was so wrong that Donald Trump wouldn’t touch him. Think about the enormity of that.

 

Cross him off then.

Quoting Rachel Phelps. I LIKE IT.

 

There is something ironically tragic/comic about the last US troops leaving Afghanistan on the week of Rumsfeld's last breaths. "No decent targets" indeed. I actually had no problem with US troops going to Afghanistan after 9/11 - I do have a problem with war being viewed as some type of TV show that needs a good plot to keep people hooked and a satisfying conclusion.

 

I didn’t have a problem with going to Afghanistan either (Iraq is an entirely different story). I do remember hearing talk that we were going to be there for 25 years because things were so much of a mess. Looks like we were only five years off.

I was watching NBC Nightly News cover the final withdrawal and, at least from the way they covered it, found it infuriating. Women have gained a considerable amount of rights, but the Taliban are looking to rise again and reinstate the strict laws that essentially leave women as no more than slaves.

Even more infuriating, they showed clips of Afghan fighters surrendering to the Taliban in exchange for money to return home, and cited a poll that 2/3 of Afghan men believe women have too many rights. I was thinking to myself “if you’re not willing to fight for your women to be safe and your country, why the fuck should my country continue to do so?”

 

I was kind of expecting us to set up "shop" at Bagram if only to keep an eye on things in that region. The geography and politics of the country obviously make Afghanistan largely ungovernable, but if the US adopted a "don't mess with us, and we won't mess with you" presence in the region (Pretty sure the closest military outpost now is Diego Garcia), it might have helped keep a lid on things.
Truthfully though - 21st Century warfare isn't about national borders, it's about the Internet, funding and terror cells acting at the behest of sponsor nations wherever they may seek an advantage.