I hate to admit it (OK, maybe I don’t), but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is looking and sounding increasingly unhinged lately, after a nice respite away from the spotlight.
The White House, apparently concerned about Rumsfeld’s growing unpopularity among voters, kept the Pentagon chief safely out of view for most of the summer. Now he’s back, but he’s not better than ever.
In a speech in Missouri yesterday, for example, Rumsfeld looked ahead to eventual stability in Iraq.
“At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed and we’ll have enough of the Iraqi security forces that they can take over responsibility for governing that country and we’ll be able to pare down the coalition security forces in the country.”
So, that’s the new plan? Wait for Iraqis to get “tired of getting killed”? It’s not exactly, “freedom is on the march,” now is it?
This follows a speech last week in which Rumsfeld mixed up Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein twice, only to add that our torture of detainees isn’t quite as bad as the terrorists who decapitate their prisoners.
I’m not sure which White House genius thought it’d be a good time to let Rumsfeld go back out into the public view, but I have a hunch he or she is regretting it now.