Rummy lies, troops die, then he says he's not going to get into...

[ProSense]

If it turned out that by December, U.S. commanders in Iraq felt they needed an unscheduled infusion of troops, "our first choice obviously would be to have them be someone other than the people we just extended," Rumsfeld said. "But I'm not going to get into the promises business. That isn't my style."

But a couple of days ago he said this:

Rumsfeld and Iraqi official say Iraq is getting safer

Safer in coast-to-coast syndication.

So was that a fact or a promise?

Rumsfeld to GIs’ families: I’m not Santa Claus


Maybe Rummy is right, he never promised this would work (his plan for securing Iraq):




Here's how it's working:

Car bombs and shootings kill 55 in Iraq














Obviously, the chart with all the arrows is the work of a deranged person (not Santa Claus), who is now trying to convince Americans that Iraq is getting safer when two weeks ago the report was:

Iraqi Death Toll Rose Above 3,400 in July: BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 15 — July appears to have been the deadliest month of the war for Iraqi civilians

It's time to get rid of Rummy, who doesn't make promises, has no rational plan and is simply arrogant and rude!







Edited to add:

The neocons (here the Heritage Foundation) had no problems making promises:

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed012705a.cfm">Promise for Iraq's Future
January 27, 2005 | Printer-Friendly Version | Send to a Friend

The day after Sunday's election, the country will seem much like it did the day before. Innocents, alas, will likely be murdered. Bombs will shred passing vehicles. Terrorists will populate Web sites with images of slaughter and propaganda.

Americans are right to be concerned, but we shouldn't yield to despair. The claim that failure is inevitable if every problem isn't solved by election time is simply wrongheaded. Elections don't ensure the future. Elections hold the promise of a future.

Since they like to go on about WWII:

Another miserable milestone for Bush's war
By Rupert Cornwell
Published: 27 August 2006

A miserable milestone was passed the other day. America's (and Britain's) disastrous war in Iraq has now lasted longer than the US involvement in the Second World War. Yes, this conflict has outlasted a war that ended with total victory over Nazi Germany. Hitler declared war on the US on 11 December 1941. Exactly 1,244 days later, on 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered. The US invaded Iraq on 19 March 2003, and this weekend it is 1,267 days later, with no end in sight.

[MADem]

1. When Bill Cohen was SECDEF, there was a revolt of the Service

Secretaries, and bullshit charts like the one above fell out of fashion. If you showed up with anything like that, you got tossed out on your ass and your briefing book thrown at your head.

"Just the facts" apparently has been replaced by gilded horseshit.

Oh, and Rummy, he IS Santa--don't let anyone fool you. He's just a BAD Santa:

http://www.calder.net.nyud.net:8090/cartoons/cangell/santa-rumsfeld-600.jpg

[benddem]

2. didn't he promise

that the WMD's would be found near Fallujah, Tikrit and north west east and south of Baghdad?
He really is a waste of space.

[MichiganVote]

3. That is the goofiest looking strategy chart I've ever seen

Love the First part/ Consitions for Co-existence

Phase III (III?)

Stability- Not in evidence
Security-Not in evidence

Ethnic-Religious-Tribal= Nothing has been done and no confidence or co-existence in evidence

So three years, thousands dead, thousands more severly wounded, $300Billion+ and what do we have to show for it folks.....

Not a goddamn thing.

And what is this "aimed pressure' going to net two years from now?

Not a goddamn thing.

[ProSense]

4. OP edited: neocons were making all sorts of promises (and comparisons). nt

[lebkuchen]

5. Rumsfeld has nothing but disdain for our military

He made that obvious this week with the "Santa Claus" comment. Our military families don't believe in Santa Claus, and they're quickly losing faith in the GOP's leadership abilities.

When the 172nd Stryker Brigade members start coming home in coffins due to their extension and being sent into the most dangerous parts of Iraq, the official DoD response will be similar to what a public affairs officer said to grieving families when the 1AD was extended in Mar. 2004, resulting in several more dead within a division that had already sustained high casualties:

“I think it does a disservice to the soldiers and more importantly their families to infer that this would not have happened had the deployment not been extended,” Gercken said. “Their sacrifice and the work they were accomplishing is too important to be covered up by speculation on what might have happened.”

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=21873
(URL obsolete)

"Suck it up," the DoD public affairs office told the families. How callous can you get?

A soldier's mother's reply to Rumsfeld in 2004 includes Wolfowitz's testimony of having no idea how many military members had been killed in battle:

And is it not obvious that the DOD under Rumsfeld could not care less about our deployed soldiers when Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, while testifying before Congress, didn’t have the foggiest idea how many U.S. servicemembers had fallen in battle? Was it 300, he said? No, it was 700. That speaks volumes to the value our government puts on the lives of our sons and daughters. Wolfowitz dehumanized our soldiers and, by his testimony, relegated our sons and daughters to the position of so much disposable property.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=22003&archive=true

[jimshoes]

6. I do believe Rummy's achieved the inverse

of that comic book looking bullshit chart. Way to go Rummy, you're pathetic.

[samsingh]

7. who's more anti-American

rummy or bush?

[Marrak]

8. Wait...I know...

let's take Baghdad...again. Less looting this time, O.K.?

[ProSense]

9. Iraq's PM is in dangerous denial!

Dozens killed in Iraq; 8 U.S. troops die

By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer 27 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Violence in Iraq left nearly 50 people dead Monday in a suicide car bombing and clashes between Shiite militia and Iraqi security forces, a brutal contradiction of the prime minister's claim that bloodshed was decreasing.

The deaths followed a day of bombings and shootings on Sunday, when more than 60 people were killed across the country, from the northern city of Kirkuk to the capital Baghdad and down to the south in Basra. The dead included eight American soldiers, one of the deadliest weekends for the U.S. military in recent months.

Snip...

The U.S. military said eight U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday and Sunday in and around Baghdad, seven of them by roadside bombs and one by gunfire. More than 2,600 U.S. military personnel have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press Count.

The renewed violence undercut Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's claim that government forces were prevailing over insurgents and sectarian extremists.

"We're not in a civil war. Iraq will never be in a civil war," he said through an interpreter on CNN television Sunday. "The violence is in decrease and our security ability is increasing."

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060828/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_060828113334

Southern Iraq security deteriorating despite British troops

5 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Mohammed has said that the security situation in the southern oil city of Basra was getting worse despite the presence of British troops.

"The security situation in Basra is deteriorating because of political differences, organised crime and clan feuds," he admitted at a joint news conference with visiting British Defence Minister Des Browne Monday.

The Iraqi minister said that the solution to the problems in
Iraq's second city, where there have been a number of recent armed clashes and bombings, would be a political rather than a military one.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060828/wl_uk_afp/iraqunrestbritain_060828120905