HECKUVA JOB RUMMIE!!

On December 16, 2006, President George W. Bush praised outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in a farewell ceremony. According to the President:

Don Rumsfeld has been at my side from the moment I took office. We've been through war together. We have shared some of the most challenging moments in our nation's history. Over the past six years, I have come to appreciate Don Rumsfeld's professionalism, his dedication, his strategic vision, his deep devotion to the men and women of our nation who wear the uniform, and his love for the United States of America.

Well, I suppose it would be a bit tacky for the President to actually tell the truth about Rummie, so I'll do Mr. Bush a favor and do the dirty work for him.

• Don Rumsfeld's professionalism: "Needless to say, the President is correct. Whatever it was he said." Donald Rumsfeld
• Don Rumsfeld's strategic vision: "Stuff happens. It's untidy, and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things." Donald Rumsfeld
• more strategic vision: "The Gulf war in the 1990s lasted five days on the ground. I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months. But it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that." Donald Rumsfeld
• Don Rumsfeld's deep devotion to the men and women of our nation who wear the uniform: "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time." Donald Rumsfeld
• a combination of strategic vision (military) and devotion to our people in uniform: "We know where they (WMD) are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." Donald Rumsfeld
• another combo, as above: "We do know of certain knowledge that he [Osama Bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead." Donald Rumsfeld

But why stop here? How about some examples illustrating the need for a sharp mind and a keen sense of the world that makes a Secretary of Defense great?

• "If we left Iraq prematurely, the enemy would tell us to leave Afghanistan and then withdraw from the Middle East. And if we left the Middle East, they’d order us and all those who don’t share their militant ideology to leave what they call the occupied Muslim lands from Spain to the Philippines." Donald Rumsfeld
• "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know." Donald Rumsfeld

Who could have predicted the result of the appointment of Don Rumsfeld to the position of Secretary of Defense? And who can predict how the new Secretary will do?

"I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past - I think the past was not predictable when it started." Donald Rumsfeld

Heckuva job, Rummie!!

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