Quotes of the Morning: All Rummy, All the Time

“Mr. Rumsfeld did not mention any of the domestic critics by name. But he suggested that those who have been critical of the administration’s handling of the war in Iraq and its aftermath might be encouraging American foes to believe that the United States might one day walk away from the effort, as it has in past conflicts.”
-New York Times, September 8, 2003

“That was back in 2003, when the forces of evil were trying to make Fearless Leader walk away from Iraq. Even then we knew that critics of the war were siding with the evil-doers.”
-Skippy

"’The American politicians couldn't understand the deepness and complications of the region,’ said Falah al-Nakib, the interior minister from June 2004 to April 2005, who said he raised the militia problem and the growing Iranian influence in Iraq with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. ‘They didn't take us seriously.’
U.S. officials long have known that the Shiite militias could become a problem.
Officials in Washington said alarms about the growing power of the militias began in late 2003 and were raised throughout 2004 and 2005 by a variety of agencies, including the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Senior officials dismissed the reports as ‘nay-saying’ and ‘hand-wringing,’ said two former senior officials in Washington who were responsible for Iraq policy through most or all of that period and one top official who remains in government.
The officials agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity because they discussed intelligence reports that remain classified.”
-Knight-Ridder Newspapers, April 18, 2006

“Hey.. Who are you going to listen to about this kind of thing? Some foreign guy with an Arab name, or our very own Secretary of Defense? Things are going well there. Very, very well there.”
-Skippy

“Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld asserted today that ‘progress has been good’ in the war in Iraq and said he is unruffled by calls for his resignation by six retired U.S. generals.
‘Well, you know, this, too, will pass,’ Rumsfeld said on Rush Limbaugh's nationally syndicated radio show.”
-Washington Post, April 18, 2006

“Yes, the war is progressing well.. There has been the occasional hiccup in the process..”
-Skippy

“Four Marines were reported killed in fighting west of Baghdad, bringing the U.S. death toll for this month to 47 compared with 31 for all of March.”
-Associated Press, April 17, 2006

“..but overall things are good. We shouldn’t listen to these foreigners who say things are going badly. After all, they don’t have access to the same sources of information that the Secretary of Defense does.”
-Skippy

"I think that it's important to put all of what is going on in context and recognize that people who are often talking about what's taking place inside here do not know what is taking place inside here,"
-Donald Rumsfeld, April 18, 2006

“U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld allowed an ‘abusive and degrading’ interrogation of an al Qaeda detainee in 2002, the online magazine Salon reported on Friday, citing an Army document.
In a report a Pentagon spokesman denounced as ‘fiction,’ Salon quoted a December 2005 Army inspector general's report in which officers told of Rumsfeld's direct contact with the general overseeing the interrogation at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The report at www.salon.com, titled ‘What Rumsfeld Knew,’ comes amid a spate of calls by retired U.S. generals for the Pentagon chief to resign to take responsibility for U.S. military setbacks in Iraq.
Rumsfeld spoke regularly to U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, a key player in the treatment of detainees in Iraq and Guantanamo, during the interrogation of Mohammed al-Kahtani, suspected to have been an intended September 11 hijacker, Salon quoted the inspector general's report as saying.
Kahtani, a Saudi national, received ‘degrading and abusive’ treatment by soldiers who were following the interrogation plan Rumsfeld had approved, Salon said, quoting the 391-page report, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Over 54 days in late 2002, soldiers forced Kahtani to stand naked in front of a female interrogator, accused him of being a homosexual, and forced him to wear women's underwear and to perform ‘dog tricks’ on a leash, Salon reported.
Salon cites Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt, an Army investigator, as saying in a sworn statement to the inspector general that ‘The secretary of defense is personally involved in the interrogation of one person.’"
-Reuters, April 14, 2006

“You see, Mr. Rumsfeld knows how to get results, and that is why he is so valued by Fearless Leader.”
-Skippy

"I hear the voices. And I read the front page. And I know the speculation. But I'm the decider. And I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, April 18, 2006

“You see, the Decider hears voices. And when the Decider says it, you know that it is decided once and for all.”
-Skippy

“Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, boosted by another strong endorsement from President George W. Bush, said on Tuesday no one is indispensable but he is not considering quitting in the face of criticism from a handful of retired generals.
Rumsfeld, an architect of the 3-year-old Iraq war who long has been a lightning rod for criticism, has faced in recent weeks an unusual spate of calls for his resignation from six retired generals. They accused him of disregarding sound military advice and ruling by intimidation.
‘The president knows, as I know, that there are no indispensable men,’ Rumsfeld said. ‘Graveyards of the world are filled with 'indispensable' people.’"
-Reuters, April 18, 2006

“Indispensable people and the soldiers who have died in that screwed up war in Iraq.”
-Skippy