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Snowflakes and Scare-Mongering
Fear-mongering, arrogance and bureaucratic bullying. By such tools, Donald Rumsfeld became one of the most powerful, most unpopular and ultimately most unsuccessful Pentagon chiefs in history. Any doubts about that judgement have been removed by the publication this week in The Washington Post of a selection of his "snow-flakes" - the short memos the former defence secretary was wont to fire off daily in scores to his staff. They pestered, they irritated, and on occasion they terrorised their recipients. Together, they give a depressing snapshot of the modus operandi of their boss, as he presided over the debacle in Iraq.
"Keep elevating the threat. Talk about Somalia and the Philippines," Mr Rumsfeld urged in April 2006 as Iraq fell apart and eminent former generals broke cover to demand his resignation. "Make the American people realise they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists." In the same vein, he suggested re-branding the war on terror a "worldwide insurgency". He seems to have had as much scorn for Arabs as for "Old Europe", noting in a May 2004 rumination that oil had made Muslims forget "the reality of work, effort and investment that leads to wealth for the rest of the world".
Not least the snowflakes underline the mendacity inherent in Mr Rumsfeld's style. Whenever pushed into a corner at a Pentagon briefing, he would wriggle free by claiming that he was not involved in a particular decision, that he had not had the time to read an embarrassing article, memo or leaked internal report. Any mistakes, he implied, were made by underlings. In fact, as the memos prove, he was an obsessive micromanager, who knew everything that was going on.
Most depressing, however, while the man himself has gone, his methods remain. Mr Rumsfeld was forced from his job in November 2006, after the Republican midterm election defeat for which his mismanagement of the war was largely responsible. His successor, Robert Gates, has a low-key, cautious and thoughtful style, far removed from the abrasive Rumsfeld. But the scare-mongering continues. Be it the use of torture or the threat posed by Iran, this White House (still featuring Mr Rumsfeld's ally Dick Cheney) trots out the same justification: America is in mortal peril, and all means are justified. In other words, as the departed, unlamented master would put it: "Keep elevating the threat."
© 2007 The Independent
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10 Comments so far
Show AllUnfortunately, the same could be said for federal (and also some local and state) government agencies across the board.
We have executives, administrators and supervisors of agencies whose basic premise the management people are against. They have declared war against the premises for their agencies and are terrible management to work for. As one person in a federal agency said, "They look to criticize and say 'I got you". Forget about serving the people in anyway, shape or form.
I remembered working with USGS people under Reagan. Terrible problems with morale.
If I were running against Lindsey Graham (R- SC- US Senate) , I'd trot out his quote that "Rumsfeld will go down as one of the best Secretaries of Defense." (paraphrase)
Americans better wake up to the fact the more advanced state of destruction of a government that is at all responsive to its people is when leadership of the beauracracies work at cross purposes to the reasons, I mean justifications, government exists.
Before with become completely fascist (corporatist), we need remedial civics and a 12-step program for our government's real actions.That so many Americans believe that America does good and is acting from humanitarian or benign motivation is a good place to start.
Sorry Bill BRG...if you trot out that quote while running against Lindsey you will lose big time.
Graham has lied more frequently than any Republican in this decade and has lost no support from the South Carolina electorate.
Bill BRG, you're right. Reagan (or his handlers) would appoint a corporate lawyer/lobbyist like James Watt to head the Dept. of Interior, so the whole purpose of the agency could be subverted from the top down. Cutting off funds for inspection and other enforcement activities worked too. Still does.
As for Rummy's "snowflakes," I'm reminded of the scene in "V for Vendetta" when the High Chancellor Adam Sutler, fearing public opinion might be swinging against the established order, commands his staff to "make the people understand how much they need us!" (flurry of scary headlines/news clips follows.)
And then the hopeful scene---disgusted citizens turning away from their screens saying to each other "Bollocks! Do you believe that?"
Bill BRG wrote: I remembered working with USGS people under Reagan. Terrible problems with morale.
Actually,they were the "good old days" by comparison with today. Under the righteous cow Gale Norton, she raped and pillaged the country while holding DoI at bay, preventing them from introspective and scientific protection of our resources. Think Dubya in drag. Morale at USGS has never been worse.
Rumor has it that Rummy still has an office at the Pentagon. Anyone else hear this or know more? Who knows what evil plot Rumsfeld and his fellow NeoCons are hatching out of that office.
Sure, Bob Gates is slicker than the abrasive Rumsfeld, but not less evil. And now it appears that the Senate is poised to confirm another neocon true believer, the slavering Bush lapdog Mukasey, who will morph into a pit bull once in office. The great tragedy isn't so much the perfidy and criminality of the Republicans, but the cowardice of the Democrats, including those running for president.
Just remember, 41 Democrats in the Senate could have blocked ANY of these appointments with a filibuster. They didn't. When you have the opportunity to stop something, and chose not to do so, then that's basically the same thing as approving it. All of these people are in power with the approval of the Senate Democrats.
Have the French locked up Rummy yet?
Psychotic.
I don't know, but I think bureaucracies, in general,seem to attract sociopatic, abrasive bullying types. I'm only refering to my military stint (during the Clinton years), but given what some of the other commenters had to say I felt like I had the same experience . I guess just as the catholic preisthood provides cover for and enables pedophiles, bureaucratic environments serve a simular function for the socially inadequate among us!