Last month, [tag]Donald Rumsfeld[/tag] criticized much the national discussion about deteriorating conditions in Iraq, concluding in a WaPo op-ed, “Fortunately, history is not made up of daily headlines, blogs on Web sites or the latest sensational attack.”
It wasn’t a new tack for the Defense Secretary, who seems to relish his role as “media critic.” But Rumsfeld took this tack to a surprising level yesterday, while chatting with — who else? — Rush Limbaugh.
“There have always been people who have opposed wars…I think we just have to accept it, that people have a right to say what they want to say, and to have an acceptance of that and recognize that the terrorists, Zarqawi and bin Laden and Zawahiri, those people have media committees.
“They are actively out there trying to manipulate the press in the United States. They are very good at it.”
These are some remarks that call out for some follow-up. It certainly sounded like Rumsfeld believes that those in the national [tag]media[/tag] who cast the war effort in a negative light are somehow cooperating with the agenda of [tag]terrorists[/tag].
Are all critics of the war, in Rumsfeld’s mind, under the sway of al Queda? Or just those journalists who report on the latest violence?
If these comments came from some far-right blogger, they’d be disturbing. The fact that they came from the Secretary of Defense demands some kind of explanation.