Rumsfeld Calls Afghanistan 'Big Succes'

[douglas9]

Source: Washington Post

NEW YORK -- In an interview billed as his first since leaving the top Pentagon post, Donald Rumsfeld calls Afghanistan "a big success," but says U.S. efforts in Iraq are hampered by the failure of Iraq's government to establish a foundation for democracy.

"In Afghanistan, 28 million people are free. They have their own president, they have their own parliament. Improved a lot on the streets," Rumsfeld says in the October issue of GQ magazine.

While "that's been a big success," he said, the Baghdad regime "has not been able to ... create an environment hospitable to whatever one wants to call their evolving way of life, a democracy or a representative system, or a freer system. And it's going to take some time and some effort."

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Rumsfeld said the Department of Defense and the U.S. military are not responsible for any failures there or in Afghanistan.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/10/AR2007091000029_pf.html

[radfringe]

1. there's goes the WH editing again

I believe the exact quote was "Afghanistan is a big sucky mess"

[Lasher]

2. We invade Iraq and it's the Iraqis' fault?

Funny how those long hard slogs always seem to work out that way.

Translation: "I am not responsible for any failures."

[Bobbieo]

5. They have the most successful opium crop they have had in years!

[polmaven]

7. Which Rummy has apparently been "testing".

Maybe the White House is helping him test it???

What a load of crap. ........The Defense Department is not responsible for the absolute incompetence of its leaders? .......498 days to go!

[TheUniverse]

3. So big success = fundamentalist tribes controlling half the country + letting the #1 bad guy go free

[Tempest]

15. Record opium production

And the proceeds of the drug trade going to the Taliban.

Yup, that's success all right.

[Roland99]

4. Roland99 calls Rumsfeld 'Big Horse's Ass'

[Demeter]

6. I'd Hate to See What Qualifies as a Big Failure n/t

[rocktivity]

8. Rocknation calls Rumsfeld 'Big Shill'

:evilgrin:
rocknation

[Spazito]

9. Yep, Afghanistan is so "successful" the "mayor of Kabul", Karzai

can't move without his contingent of Blackwater mercenaries protecting him and that's IN Kabul.

[gratuitous]

10. Shame on GQ

Printing the demented rantings of an obviously delusional individual as straight news, subjecting this poor sap to public ridicule. Mr. Rumsfeld deserves more dignified treatment, I'm thinking the asylum ward at a mental hospital for the criminally insane.

[KansDem]

11. "They have their own president, they have their own parliament..."

They also have their own terrorist training camps, which, according to news reports from the BBC following the arrest of the three "terrorists" in Germany by German police last week, is where those "terrorists" trained.

I thought we went after these "terrorists" in Afghanistan following 9/11? Wouldn't this action have closed down those terrorist training camps? Maybe we would have gotten them all if we didn't redirect American forces into Iraq based on the desire to steal oil and settle a family grudge...

[underpants]

12. Hey but they do now have targets

they didn't used to

[donsu]

13. but it is a success - they got that bridge built with our money

I posted the bridge story about a wk. ago or less.

and the pipeline is a go

the neo cons are happy as can be, money is being made

[shraby]

14. It's a big success alright...they have the largest

poppy crop in history.

[0007]

16. Rummy is a son of a prick.....nt

[TexasLawyer]

17. Lots of drug money for terrorists

"The Taliban pretty much were ancient history four years ago, and now they are back, because they are deriving money from the drug trade," said Peter Bergen, a CNN terrorism analyst. Disenchanted farmers find ready allies in the Taliban, who provide protection for them and their fields. Both groups align with drug lords who provide upfront money and credit for crops, pay farmers cash, and after the harvest, pick up the opium themselves. For farmers who may not even own trucks to get crops to market, this service is invaluable.

"Drug eradication is a fantastic opportunity for the Taliban," said Peter Jouvenal, a British journalist who has reported from Afghanistan for more than two decades. "It gives them the opportunity to recruit farmers that are fed up with these foreigners coming in and destroying their land."

<snip>

The Taliban use their share of drug proceeds to build up their forces in the frontier provinces in the southern part of the country, which is also home to the most poppy production. This puts pressure on local governments as well as President Karzai's government in Kabul. It also enables the Taliban to hire forces to attack U.S. and NATO troops.

"This place has shown itself to be something very, very usable for the fundamentalists to operate from to do whatever is necessary to continue their war of terrorism," Wankel said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/07/afghanistan.poppies/index.html

[Felix Mala]

18. Only because no one is paying attention...

What will he call it when the only place we hold is Kabul?

[Hekate]

19. A "catastrophic success", as his old boss would say.Lotta heroin headed our way. nt

[Adsos Letter]

20. Well, I just happen to agree with ol' "duplicitous Don"...

...but I tend to measure things in terms of opium production...

[dogfacedboy]

21. Rumsfeld is a babbling idiot. n/t