Translating Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld in his special appearance before Congress apologizes and promises to make nice. Given the track record of this administration, we shall see if once again this is a case of wonderful but horribly empty rhetoric. However, I see he continues to conflate fighting terrorism with going to Iraq, as we find these words in his opening comments.

We know what the terrorists will do; we know they will try to exploit all that is bad, and try to obscure all that is good. That's their nature. And that's the nature of those who think they can kill innocent men, women and children to gratify their own cruel wills to power.

Very disconcerting. For the brainwashed true believers, I'm presuming he had to include that reminder. Let's not forget why we went to Iraq in the first place.

What struck me the most in the questioning was his concern about the effects of the photographs on world opinion. What a terrible thing to clutter up our beautiful minds with, these awful photographs. I suppose the photos only make things worse for him and the other war crime perpetrators. Which misses the point entirely: if they weren't doing this in the first place, it wouldn't be a problem. I'm struck by the hand in the candy jar type of blaming. Some of us out here are adults. Some of us have brains. Suppressing this from us makes it worse. Really.

My greatest fear is that we'll lose sight that our fearless leader is completely responsible for this because it sure looks like he is going to get off scot-free again.