In his trademark blunt fashion U.S. secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld had this to say (during a Defense Department Operational Update Briefing on Nov. 23, 2004) about the German and French refusal to train the Iraqi security force within Iraq.
Mr. Secretary, within the hour, SACEUR General Jimmy Jones at the National Press Club talked about one of your favorite topics, transformation, but he also said that soon a NATO training team of two (thousand) to 3,000 members will begin training parts of the Iraqi security force, but he also said one of the problems with this transformation is that up to 11 NATO countries would not take part. Do you feel NATO can still be relevant if all its members don't take part in military action?
SEC. RUMSFELD: (...) Now, is it a problem? Yes. Let me explain why this issue that General Jones raised is a problem. If you have headquarters and units and the 26 countries assign people to those units and those headquarters on the basis that when NATO decides to do something the NATO countries will then do that, and then all of a sudden one or two countries raise their hand and say: "Wait a minute. We agreed that NATO could do it, but we're not going to let our people in those headquarters do it," now that's a problem. And that's a problem that the ambassador there is working on; it's a problem the secretary-general's working on.
I mean, it's kind of like if you've got a basketball team, and you have five people trained together week after week after week. Comes to be game time and two of them stick up their hand and say, "Gee, I don't think I'm going to play this week." It would be better if they were on the bench and somebody else had been training for the last period of weeks. And so that's something that NATO's going to have to work on.
I'm just glad the U.S. didn't sit on the bench during the many Berlin crises between 1945 and 1990.
Came game time, they were - always - ready.
Update: I deleted quite a few postings in the comment section - presenting Rumsfeld quotes is still a sure way to drive the German Left crazy... (as if it needed Rumsfeld for that). I didn't delete all of these quotes, though, for the amusement of our German speaking audience.
michael moore posts:
"Well, I never disputed the fact the France, China, Russia or any other country ever dealt with Saddam or did anything. I didn't even write about them. I am sorry, but if I make a comment I can't start with Adam and Eve."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
But feeding the currently fashionable, kneejerk anti-Americanism with "facts" that are, as I said, selective, purposefully biased, without historical or current context is simply propaganda.
You say you "never disputed the facts about China, Russia or France," but you never stated them either, instead you attempted to create a specific negative impression with your very narrow selection of very self serving facts.
Nobody asked you for a history lesson from Adam and Eve but at least be honest about your intentions. And, neither should you get angry when someone else 'makes a comment' and your selectivity is outed for the agenda it appears to be.
You say, nothing you said is "wrong." Well 'wrong' might not be the correct word, perhaps "politcally bias" or "dishonest" are more appropo?
Tyranno
Posted by: Tyranno | November 27, 2004 at 12:00 PM
michael moore posts:
"When it was convenient for Rummie he met with Saddam. And when he became inconvenient he tried to get rid of him. That is the realistic politic game that all of them play. Saying that Saddam is "evil" in that respect is the dumbest thing anyone could do.
Sure, all dictators are evil, but so what? The Saudis are the best allies of the US in that region. But I haven't heard anyone in the current administration calling the House of Saud evil.
But I am getting carried away here. Rumsfeld would never call Saddam evil, I guess. I just put together some quotes and mentioned some interesting facts regarding Rumsfeld and Saddam."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you are European you are displaying a decided lack of "complexity" and "nuance," otherwise you would understand the difficulties of going cold turkey on the House of Saud who controls (approx) one quarter of the worlds oil supply.
Once again your selectivity is glaring, "when it was convenient" THE WORLD was friends with the criminal hussein regime . . . and when he became inconvenient, (while old Europe was still content to look the other way at the atrocities being committed to secure their own oil and trade contracts,) the U.S.A. and a coaltion of like minded nations overthrew him.
I am still trying to figure out what is wrong with this, as you imply. What a great message to send to all the tyrants of the world; you may think that you are an ally, but you are always on notice that you are being tolerated due to current political circumstances... and you will be deposed when the opportunity presents itself.
Not unlike securing the absolution of all the current Iraqi debt would send a signal to the world that commerce with criminal regimes will not be a secure debt.
Would France, Russia or China have vetoed the liberation of Iraq were it not for their voluminous economic ties, commercial interests?
(I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say, no, they would not have.)
Did you know that the U.S.A. has already withdrawn over 90% of it's forces from the SA. Have you seen they are preparing for an election of sorts? Did you notice that Libya offered up it's nuclear program to the UNITED NATIONS for regulation? Have seen the Iranian's negotiating UN oversight for their program? Did you notice that if you take Iraq proper out of the statistics, terrorism around the world has fallen approx 50%.
Why? You might want to ask yourself.
There is an obvious consistency and vision in current U.S. foreign policy if one takes an unemotional 'realpolitik' look at what has taken place over the last four years.
I see a repeat of the 1980s when the
"PeaceKeeper" missles were deployed into Europe. With all the same people blathering all the same things about a "stupid cowboy starting WWIII" and all that happened was the acceleration of the demise of the old Soviet Union. Some people think that was a good thing.
Now we have the usual suspects, blathering on about another "Stupid Cowboy" trying to "start WWIII" and all that has happened is the liberation of Afghanistan, the liberation of Iraq, the opening up of the Libyan and Iranian nuclear programs, . . . some people think these are good things and lets give it a few more years and see how things turn out in the middle east.
Which if you hadn't noticed, is the only region of the world without a single elected, representative government... well, except for Israel whom you all seem to viscerally hate.
So, while you all pretend to demand absolutes, (at least from the West) creating a worldwide economic depression serves no ones interests including your own.
Tyranno
Posted by: Tyranno | November 27, 2004 at 12:46 PM