Secretary of Pretense
Donald Rumsfeld compared critics of the illegal and unnecessary war in Iraq to Hitler's appeasers.
But who are the real appeasers to the real enemy of the United States?
George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld.
Osama bin Laden's top priority was to
get U.S. troops out of Saudi Arabia:
"Muslims burn with anger at America. For its own good, America should leave [Saudi Arabia.] ... There is no more important duty than pushing the American enemy out of the holy land. ... The presence of the USA Crusader military forces on land, sea and air of the states of the Islamic Gulf is the greatest danger threatening the largest oil reserve in the world. The existence of these forces in the area will provoke the people of the country and induces aggression on their
religion, feelings and prides and pushes them to take up armed struggle against the invaders occupying the land. ... Due to the imbalance of power between our armed forces and the enemy forces, a suitable means of
fighting must be adopted, i.e. using fast-moving, light forces that work under complete secrecy. In other words, to initiate a guerrilla war, where the sons of the nation, and not the military forces, take part in it."
The Prince Sultan Air Base was conceived in the late 1980s by Department of Defense and State officials under President Ronald Reagan and later President George H.W. Bush.
After the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein -- who believed he had the tacit approval of the first Bush administration -- U.S. military forces moved into Saudi Arabia, angering bin Laden, who deeply opposed the secular rule of Hussein.
The Prince Sultan Air Base was a technological marvel. Built in the vast flat plains of Saudia Arabia, it included the most sophisticated command and control system ever developed by the United States military. At a cost of more than $1 billion, it was intended not just to serve as a base to defend Saudia Arabia, but to project U.S. force in the Middle East. As late as 2001, the U.S. military was making improvements at the base.
The barracks were air conditioned to provide comfortable living from the 115 degree plus heat of the Arabian desert. The base had a swimming pool.
On Sept. 11th, 2001, 19 criminals hijacked four jet liners, crashing two of them into the World Trade Center towers, one into the Pentagon and a fourth into a Pennsylvania field.
The plan was masterminded by Osama bin Laden. His Al Quaeda organization had carried out other "guerrilla" style attacks, but this was the group's largest.
In April 2003, shortly after the initial phase of combat operations ended in the Iraq war, Rumsfeld held a press conference to announce the $1 billion-plus base was being closed. The U.S. was pulling the forces out of Saudia Arabia -- just as Osama bin Laden wanted.
Administration officials claimed the base's closing was at the request of the Saudis and as a way to ease tensions in the region.
Yet Prince Sultan, whom the base was named after, said the Saudi government did not request the U.S. to leave and had not pressured the U.S. to do so.
U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, Republican chairman of the House National Security Committee, let slip the real reason the administration closed the base on the Larry King Show on Feb. 11, 2004:
We knew we needed to get out of Saudi Arabia, that was one of the contentions of Osama bin Laden.
That is called "giving in to the terrorists."
That is called "appeasement."
President Bush infamously said just six months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks:
So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.
Recently leading Republican pundit Ann Coulter said of Osama bin Laden:
"As for catching Osama, it's irrelevant. Things are going swimmingly in Afghanistan."
When you don't care about the capture or killing of the nation's enemy, you are being an appeaser. When you allow the nation's enemy to slip away because you don't send in enough troops to do the job, you are being an appeaser.
And when you give in to the demands of a criminal like bin Laden by withdrawing from Saudia Arabia as he demanded, you are an appeaser.
If that son of a bitch Rumsfeld wants to see what an appeaser looks like, all he has to do is look in the damn mirror.