--This is part 1 of a Feb 19th entry from The Bloogeyman's Blog (
http://bloogeyman.blogspot.com),to see more recent entries please visit the blog--
Ok, let's talk about Donald Rumsfeld. He had a pretty telling question-and-answer hearing in Congress a couple days ago. It's interesting how throughout the history of the United States the Secretary of Defense either is one of the highest profile persons in government, or all but forgotten and anonymous. In fact, I'm guessing that Rumsfeld is perhaps the best known member of the Bush administration except for George Bush himself. How many people can name Clinton's Secretary of Defense?
And it's not just the fact that we're tangled up in two wars and facing the prospect of a couple more - Rumsfeld is generally one really irascible old man. I guess you could compare him to your wrinkly, old uncle who gets really drunk and then starts picking fights with everyone - you can pretty much ignore the old bastard, unless, of course, he's your Secretary of Defense.
Now, Rummy gets a lot of flak for his I'm-an-asshole-but-you-can't-do-anything-about-it-so-take-this! attitude towards everyone from regular soldiers (`you get shipped home in the box you have, not the one you'd like to have') to congressmen (`wow! I really can just say `fuck you!' to every question they ask me and eventually they will just go away').
He gets tons of hate from the Left - hated for everything from his mismanagement of the war (and his `fuck you' attitude to anyone who points it out) to his seeming callousness towards dead soldiers (`I could sign this condolence letter to his mother, but damn, my fingers are all tired from signing all those checks to Halliburton!'). The Right vacillates between lightly condemning him to an uneasy endorsement (`Well, he is a tough guy...').
But hold on, I'm not here to pile onto the hate heap, there are plenty of columns talking about that, I'm going to talk about why Rumsfeld is the right guy for the job - why I even ,gasp, kind of like him. "WTF?!?", you're going to say, "The Bloogeyman's off his nut". I'm not saying that I'm sending Rummy love letters or anything, but let me take you through why I think that Rummy's an important part of the administration. When it comes down to it, the Bloogeyman prefers the boogeyman that is out in the open to the one that is still hiding in the shadows.
I'll admit that that's kind of warped way of looking at things - to ignore some of the obviously incompetent or just plain horrible things Rummy has done ("But Mister Bloogeyman, his fuck ups are so many and so obvious!") - but first lets look at what his part is in all this. Who sets the policy and who follows it? Sure, Rummy had a say in the decision to go to war, how to set up the war, and how to execute it - but it was Bush and Cheney who were the final decision makers - it's their policy. The Bush administration, as we have all come to know and treasure, will never give anyone a straight answer on anything. They're like a guy at the bar who will keep buying you drinks, joking with you and generally having a good time, only to stab you in the back later and take your wallet. Rummy's kind of like some guy who steps out of a dark alley, shows you a knife, says he's gonna stab you, stabs you, and then tells you he's stabbing you as he turns the knife. Which is better? Well, there's really not much difference in the end result (you're still face down in your own blood and puke in a back alley, minus your wallet), but at least in the second case you know what's happening and maybe, just maybe, you have a chance to take some action to prevent the end result.
--You've just read part 1 of this story, if you want to see part 2 right away you can go to http://bloogeyman.blogspot.com/2005/02/when-you-play-gin-rummy-with-this.html , or if you want to see other more recent articles please visit http://bloogeyman.blogspot.com --