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Foot Soldiers and Generals PART ONE: The Foot Soldiers Well, you did it. A few weeks ago, we reported the incredible 2nd Quarter grassroots contributions totaling $637,137 compared to Congressman Murtha’s $113,155. A fluke? A few months of accidental luck? Well, the July totals tell a different story. Because of your continued vigilance and sacrificial support, we’ve now raised an additional $400,000 in the month of July! That’s right, $400,000 in July alone. Here’s the quick math. The first and second quarter totals combined shattered the $900,000 mark. When you add in July’s contributions, the new total is $1.3 million...

August 12, 2008, 4:00 a.m. ‘The Army We Need’The McCain/Obama debt to Rumsfeld. By Lawrence Di Rita In remarks to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in April 2007, Sen. Barack Obama told an audience that “if the need arises when I’m president, the Army we have will be the Army we need.� The phrasing was an obvious shot at Chicago’s own Donald Rumsfeld, who in December 2004 in Kuwait told a deployed National Guard unit that the nation goes to war “with the Army you have.� Given Obama’s hostility to Bush’s strategy in Iraq overall, it is probably...

The "surge" in Iraq sure appears to have worked.  There are some who say President Bush should have listened to voices such as Senator John McCain and then Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki in the first place, rather than taking the foolish advice of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other "neo-con" hardliners. But before we give all the credit to the "more boots on the ground" stompers and all the blame to Rumsfeld and the neo-cons, let's take a second look at the surge. To set the stage, let's look at the results to date.  (In the...

When I created the “Infamous Monsters” post back in 2004, I did promise that if Bush won, I'd give equal treatment to the other side of the aisle. And he did. And so, as promised, here we go. Now, it's not as easy as before. The loony left and antiwar moonbats and their terrorist heroes are a lot easier to pair off with famous monsters. The people on the right all seem so garshed darn normal-looking. But isn’t that the worst kind of monster of all?* Now I don my tinfoil hat, and briefly transform into a nutroot moonbat. Dracula...

"The lack of an official endorsement from Rumsfeld most likely stems from the rift caused between the two over a statement McCain made in the past regarding Rumsfeld’s tenure in the White House. Rumsfeld, McCain declared, will "go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history." An aide for Rumsfeld, Keith Urbahn, tells The Hill Rumsfeld no longer follows presidential elections. Instead he is focusing his energy on the Rumsfeld Foundation, an organization that encourages young people to participate in public service, and his memoirs. “Mr. Rumsfeld is a Republican,” however, Urbahn quickly points out....

High-Ranking Abuse by Ben Giles June 20, 2008 High ranking officials at the Department of Defense undertook the process of authorizing illegal interrogation tactics in the year following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee. “Senior officials in the United States government sought out information on aggressive techniques, twisted the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) in his opening statement. “In the process, they damaged our ability to collect intelligence that could save lives.” Assisted by questionable legal council from...

Rumsfeld repays McCain; declines to back candidate By Roxana Tiron Posted: 06/18/08 08:00 PM [ET] Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld recently declined to answer whether he will support Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president. McCain, the GOP presidential standard-bearer, has been one of Rumsfeld’s harshest critics. McCain has said that Rumsfeld will “go down as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history.” The Hill talked to Rumsfeld earlier this month near his downtown D.C. office. Rumsfeld told The Hill that he has not followed the presidential elections, but instead has been focused on work for his private...

US Defense Department officials in late 2001 and 2002 concealed from the CIA and other intelligence agencies potentially useful information gleaned from Iranian agents, said a Senate report released Thursday. The Iranians told Pentagon employees about a tunnel complex in Iran used to store weapons and move its personnel covertly out of the country, likely into Afghanistan in the post September 11 war period, according to the report by the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Iranians also told of a long-standing relationship with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and the growth of anti-regime sentiment inside Iran, it said. The new report adds...

May 10, 2008, 8:30 a.m. Warring HistoryRethinking the Iraq critics. By Michael Barone In trying to understand news about the conflicts in Iraq, I work to keep in mind the difference between what we know now about decision making in World War II and what most Americans knew at the time. From the memoirs and documents published after the war, we’ve learned how leaders made critical judgments. But at the time, even well-informed journalists only could guess at what was going on behind the scenes. Today we’re only beginning to learn about what went on behind the scenes in...

...The latest revelations on the torture front show - the memo from John Yoo - as well as revelations from Phillippe Sands' book - means that Donald Rumsfeld, David Addington, John Yoo should not leave the United States any time soon. They will be at some point indicted for war crimes. They deserve to be...

Stanford Crackdown on Hoover by: Malcolm A. Kline, April 02, 2008 There’s only one thing that a politically correct university hates more than hosting a conservative think tank on its campus and that is when the guest scholar accumulates more prestige than the host institution. Then the institution of higher learning might make a hamfisted attempt to regulate the wayward scholars, applying discipline it would never dream of inflicting on its own faculty. Such a situation may be transpiring at Stanford. “You may have heard that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was offered a one-year visiting fellowship at the...

In the first insider account of Pentagon decision-making on Iraq, one of the key architects of the war blasts former secretary of state Colin Powell, the CIA, retired Gen. Tommy R. Franks and former Iraq occupation chief L. Paul Bremer for mishandling the run-up to the invasion and the subsequent occupation of the country. Douglas J. Feith, in a massive score-settling work, portrays an intelligence community and a State Department that repeatedly undermined plans he developed as undersecretary of defense for policy and conspired to undercut President Bush's policies. Among the disclosures made by Feith in "War and Decision," scheduled...

One afternoon in late November, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was flying back to Washington from the Army base at Fort Hood, Tex., where he had spoken with soldiers and spouses about the future of Iraq. Sitting across from him at his desk in the back of the Pentagon’s jet, I asked him about the possibility of another military conflict: U.S. air strikes on Iran. “The last thing the Middle East needs now is another war,” he said quietly. “We have to keep all options on the table,” he went on, reciting the standard caveat. “But if Iraq has shown us...

Short List of possible VP Candidates: Romney, Huckabee, Coburn, Hunter, Thompson, DeMint, Sessions, Lynn Cheney, Ingraham, Rush, Mark Levin, Lieberman, Giuliani, Condy Rice, Colin Powell, Rumsfeld, JOhn Bolton, Pawlenty, Sanford, Stallone, Chuck Norris, J. C. Watts, Jeb Bush, Michael Steele Any others? Have at it.

I admire Donald Rumsfeld. The former two-time Secretary of Defense, White House Chief of Staff and Congressman is also a former naval aviator and a very successful private sector executive. Rumsfeld's life has been defined by public service of the highest sort. His leadership in the war, from the moment he went towards the crash site on 9/11, was defined by a relentless focus on the enemy, a focus so extraordinary that it made him a political liability and a target for every grouser inside the Pentagon and every critic of the war--for whatever reason-- outside of the building. His...

Today the people of Venezuela face a constitutional referendum, which, if passed, could obliterate the few remaining vestiges of Venezuelan democracy. The world is saying little and doing less as President Hugo Chávez dismantles Venezuela's constitution, silences its independent media and confiscates private property. --snip--With diplomatic, economic and communications institutions designed for a different era, the free world has too few tools to help prevent Venezuela's once vibrant democracy from receding into dictatorship. But such a tragedy is not preordained. In fact, we face a moment when swift decisions by the United States and like-thinking nations could dramatically help, supporting...

Rumsfeld Remarks at Churchill Dinner PATH TO VICTORY Refashioning Institutions for the 21st Century Remarks by Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Claremont Institute's 20th Annual Dinner in Honor of Sir Winston Churchill, November 17, 2007.This past year has certainly provided ample entertainment for those interested in politics. The activities of Congress and the unexpected blessing of an extra year of presidential campaigning fill our newspapers, televisions, and blogs. The problem is that this entertainment tends to focus on the petty and the personal, and seems to avoid a serious discussion of the emerging challenges our country and the next...

French prosecutors throw out Rumsfeld torture case Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:27pm EST PARIS (Reuters) - The Paris prosecutors' office has dismissed a suit against Donald Rumsfeld accusing the former U.S. defense secretary of torture, human rights groups who brought the case said on Friday. The plaintiffs, who included the French-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said Rumsfeld had authorized interrogation techniques that led to rights abuses. The FIDH said it had received a letter from the prosecutors' office ruling that Rumsfeld benefited from a "customary" immunity from prosecution granted...

Editor’s Note: Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld received the 2007 Claremont Institute’s Statesmanship Award in honor of Sir Winston S. Churchill on November 17, 2007, and delivered the following remarks (as released by the secretary, exclusively to National Review Online). This past year has certainly provided ample entertainment for those interested in politics. The activities of Congress and the unexpected blessing of an extra year of presidential campaigning fill our newspapers, televisions, and blogs. The problem is that this entertainment tends to focus on the petty and the personal, and seems to avoid a serious discussion of the emerging...

PARIS, Oct. 26 — Several human rights organizations based in the United States and Europe have filed a complaint in a Paris court accusing former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of responsibility for torture. The group, which includes the International Federation for Human Rights, the French League for Human Rights, and the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, made the complaint late Thursday and unsuccessfully sought to confront Mr. Rumsfeld as he left a breakfast meeting in central Paris on Friday. Jeanne Sulzer, one of the lawyers working on the issue for the human rights groups, said the complaint...

PARIS (Reuters) - Human rights groups have filed a lawsuit in France alleging that former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld allowed torture at U.S.-run detention centers in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The plaintiffs, which include the French-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), say Rumsfeld authorized interrogation techniques that led to rights abuses. The United States says it does not torture, though it has authorized several methods widely condemned by rights groups such as exposure to extreme temperatures and 'waterboarding', or simulated drowning. "We will only stop once the...

As you may have heard, Donald Rumsfeld has been offered a one- year appointment as the Special Distinguished Visiting Something at the Hoover Institution, a right-wing think tank affiliated with Stanford University in a way not clear to me or, apparently, anyone else. The online petition opposing his appointment has been signed by more than 2,600 "members of the Stanford community," another fuzzy designation. The reaction of the Hoover Institution to the online petition has been a hearty laugh and another round for the table. It has never cared about the opinions of the Stanford community in the past, and...

<p>I remember Dec. 7, 1941. Our family was at home in Illinois. Around midday, my mom, dad, sister and my grandmother and great-grandmother gathered in front of the old radio in our living room. I was nine, so I suspect I didn't really understand the news about Pearl Harbor. And yet I knew this much: Something important, something truly momentous, had happened to our lives, and to the lives of our friends and neighbors.</p>

Stanford University faculty members are protesting former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's appointment as a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. Renowned professor emeritus of psychology Philip Zimbardo, who has publicly blamed Rumsfeld and other Bush Administration officials for the notorious abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, is among a protest petition's "instigators," as he put it. "We think he has distinguished himself for all the wrong things than what the university should stand for and what America should stand for," Zimbardo said Monday, adding that about 118 people had signed the petition by Sunday, but the number should increase...

Rumsfeld Calls Afghanistan 'Big Success' By RICHARD PYLE NEW YORK (AP) — In an interview billed as his first since leaving the top Pentagon post, Donald Rumsfeld calls Afghanistan "a big success," but says U.S. efforts in Iraq are hampered by the failure of Iraq's government to establish a foundation for democracy. "In Afghanistan, 28 million people are free. They have their own president, they have their own parliament. Improved a lot on the streets," Rumsfeld says in the October issue of GQ magazine. While "that's been a big success," he said, the Baghdad regime "has not been able to...

Some faculty and students at Stanford University say they are outraged by the fellowship appointment of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld, who resigned last year amid intense criticism of his handling of the Iraq war, has been given a one-year fellowship at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who directed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and then resigned last November after months of mounting pressure, will join Stanford University's Hoover Institution as a visiting fellow. Rumsfeld, who also led the nation's response to Sept. 11, will participate in the institution's new task force of scholars and experts studying post-Sept. 11 ideology and terror, according to Hoover director John Raisian, in a statement released Friday afternoon. "I have asked Don to join the distinguished group of scholars that will pursue new insights on the direction of thinking that the United...

WASHINGTON --Under that famously self-confident exterior is a president who weeps - a lot. President Bush told the author of a new book on his presidency that "I try not to wear my worries on my sleeve" or show anything less than steadfastness in public, especially in a time of war. "I fully understand that the enemy watches me, the Iraqis are watching me, the troops watch me, and the people watch me," he said. Yet, he said, "I do tears." "I've got God's shoulder to cry on. And I cry a lot. I do a lot of crying in...

Sir Mike Jackson says Rumsfeld one of most responsible for current situation in Iraq. LONDON - The head of the British Army during the invasion of Iraq has blasted the United States for its handling of the aftermath, a newspaper reported Saturday. General Sir Mike Jackson laid into the then US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a stinging attack, said The Daily Telegraph, which is to serialise his forthcoming autobiography, "Soldier". Jackson branded US policy after the March 2003 invasion "intellectually bankrupt" and slammed Rumsfeld's claim that US forces "don't do nation-building" as "nonsensical." Jackson said Rumsfeld was "one of...

Rumsfeld resigned before election, letter shows Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:40AM EDT By Kristin Roberts WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Rumsfeld, architect of the unpopular Iraq war, resigned as defense secretary before last year's November election but his decision was not announced until after the voting, according to his resignation letter obtained by Reuters on Wednesday. The letter was dated November 6, the day before voters, angered by Iraq, went to the polls and swept Republicans from power in Congress. According to a stamp on the letter, President George W. Bush saw it on election day. Bush, however, did not announce...

Summary: Did the Bush administration disregard military expertise before the Iraq war? Should military leaders have done more to protest in response? Michael Desch's "Bush and the Generals" (May/June 2007) contains significant errors of fact and interpretation. One of us, Richard Myers, has direct knowledge and personal experience with the subject; the other, Richard Kohn, has been studying and observing American civil-military relations for 45 years. Bush administration officials did not, as Desch charges, "overrule" the military "on the number of troops to be sent" to Iraq or "the timing of ... deployment." Both were the result of over a...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2007 – Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other former top Pentagon officials today said facts about Army Cpl. Patrick D. Tillman’s friendly-fire death were mishandled, but not covered up to make it seem he died from enemy fire. In his first visit to Capitol Hill since stepping down as defense secretary, Rumsfeld appeared with three Army generals before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to answers questions about the controversial case and to deny allegations that evidence was intentionally distorted. Seven investigations into Tillman’s case revealed the Defense Department and Army responses to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld defended himself and took no personal responsibility Wednesday for the military's bungled response to Army Ranger Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan. Rumsfeld, in his first public appearance on Capitol Hill since President Bush replaced him with Robert Gates late last year, reiterated previous testimony to investigators that he didn't have early knowledge that Tillman was cut down by fellow Rangers, not by enemy militia, as was initially claimed. He told a House committee hearing that he'd always impressed upon Pentagon underlings the importance of telling the truth. "Early in my...

WASHINGTON — A fresh round of Pentagon finger-pointing didn't settle Democrats' questions about the bungled response to Army Cpl. Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death. Maybe grilling former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will. Rumsfeld was a late addition to the witness list for a House hearing Wednesday on who knew what and when about Tillman's death in Afghanistan in 2004, which initially was falsely blamed on enemy fire. The congressional inquiry comes a day after the Army laid most of the blame on Philip Kensinger, a retired three-star general who led Army special operations forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks....

WASHINGTON — Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld defended himself and took no personal responsibility Wednesday for the military's bungled response to Army Ranger Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan. Rumsfeld, in his first public appearance on Capitol Hill since President Bush replaced him with Robert Gates late last year, reiterated previous testimony to investigators that he didn't have early knowledge that Tillman was cut down by fellow Rangers, not by enemy militia, as was initially claimed. He told a House committee hearing that he'd always impressed upon Pentagon underlings the importance of telling the truth. "Early in my tenure...

Washington, D.C. - Michael Maloof was back in the game. He and another Pentagon aide, David Wurmser, drove the short distance from the Pentagon to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. It was early October, a good season in Washington, but Maloof’s nerves were on edge during the scenic ride along the tree-lined George Washington Parkway. snip Maloof was a legend within the Pentagon circle that tracked arms proliferation. His office was obscure, but it performed a crucial national security function. snip The Pentagon wanted years of intelligence reporting on al Qaeda, Iraq, Iran and other potential targets in the war...

Rumsfeld Is Setting Up a Foundation AP WASHINGTON (AP) - Now that he's out of government, former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is setting up a foundation to attract others to public service. ''His whole focus is getting this foundation organized,'' said Lawrence Di Rita, once Rumsfeld's spokesman at the Pentagon and still authorized to speak for him. ''He's deep into that.'' While Rumsfeld did stints as an investment banker and pharmaceutical executive, the 75-year-old Republican spent most of his life in public service, including two separate tours as defense secretary, four terms representing Illinois in the House of Representatives...

Donald Rumsfeld's pride went before his fall--and thousands of needless deaths DONALD RUMSFELD gives Robert McNamara, chief architect of Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam war policy, a good run for his money as worst U.S. defense secretary of modern times. Rumsfeld's competitiveness in this race is freshly illustrated in "Endgame," the newest episode of public television's unrivaled "Frontline" series. The Middle East birthed the world's great monotheistic religions--Judaism, Christianity, Islam. During the past 6 years Washington has produced lesser Gods of One, who believe that the world is as they say it is, or will be as soon as their divine breath...

What's next for Donald Rumsfeld? The former Defense Secretary, not surprisingly, has had talks with publishers about the possibility of writing a book. But a longtime adviser tells Time.com that Rumsfeld has other, even more ambitious, plans. Rumsfeld, who was Pentagon boss from 2001 to 2006 and oversaw the planning and execution of the Iraq war, is in the early stages of setting up an educational foundation that would provide fellowships to citizens who want to try their hand at public service.

PHILADELPHIA--Of the many problems in Iraq, one of the most frustrating has been the Bush administration's belief that democracy is the prerequisite to liberalism. It is not. Security, not democracy, is the sine qua non of a liberal society. Without it, elections are useless, or worse. While the administration labored to deliver Iraqi democracy, it seemed to believe that security would take care of itself once the purple thumbs were counted. The Baghdad Security Plan (commonly known as the "surge") is the administration's first serious attempt to grapple with security in Iraq. The results so far are not discouraging. The...

TAOS— This small mountain town is known for leaving its celebrities alone. That's why Julia Roberts can shop for yarn at La Lana Wools and Anthony Hopkins (aka Hannibal Lecter) can thumb through the pages at Brodsky Bookshop undisturbed. But Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense? That's a different story. While living in Taos, Rumsfeld has suffered a number of public indignities, from being burned in effigy to being refused a hot chocolate by a bartender. But last week's description of a verbal fracas aimed at Rumsfeld by writer Jeff Conant, posted on an Internet political newsletter at www.counterpunch.org, may...

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was admitted to Washington Hospital Center for a heart procedure, although was released from the hospital earlier today. Rumsfeld was discharged Thursday from Washington Hospital Center, according to hospital spokesman Leroy Tillman. Tillman said that because of federal patient confidentiality regulations, he could not say how long Rumsfeld had been a patient, how Rumsfeld was doing or what unit had treated him. A source tells The Crypt that the 74-year-old Rumsfeld was held overnight in a VIP section of the hospital, and that he underwent a heart procedure while there. Rumsfeld, the architect of the...

On August 8 the Wall Street Journal reported that aides to Secretary Rumsfeld are "calling for deep personnel cuts to the Army, Navy, and Air Force..." Under Rumsfeld's plan, the U.S. Army would have to eliminate almost three divisions. The Air Force would have to eliminate a quarter of its fighter squadrons. The Navy would liquidate two carrier battle groups... And don't forget the fact that the one-time chief of staff of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev recently acknowledged that the August 1991 coup was ordered by Gorbachev himself...

The Republican presidential candidate says he's standing by his remarks, in which he labeled Rumsfeld "one of the worst secretaries of defense in history." McCain also accuses Rumsfeld of mismanaging the Iraq war. Vice President Cheney takes exception to those comments, telling A-B-C News he thinks McCain is "wrong." Cheney suggested McCain might apologize. But later on the campaign trail today in Los Angeles, McCain said his comments stand.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House defended Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday from criticism from Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) that he was one of the worst U.S. defense secretaries ever for his handling of the Iraq war. McCain, one of President George W. Bush's key allies in the U.S. Congress on Iraq, is running for his party's nomination to be president in 2008. "I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history," the Arizona senator and former Vietnam War veteran said on the campaign trail in...

BLUFFTON, S.C. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history. "We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement — that's the kindest word I can give you — of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war," the Arizona senator told an overflow crowd of more than 800 at a retirement community near Hilton Head Island, S.C. "The price is very, very heavy and I regret it enormously." McCain, the ranking Republican...

BLUFFTON, S.C. (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history. "We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement - that's the kindest word I can give you - of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war," the Arizona senator told an overflow crowd of more than 800 at a retirement community near Hilton Head Island, S.C. "The price is very, very heavy and I regret it enormously." McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate...

BLUFFTON, S.C. (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history. "We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement _ that's the kindest word I can give you _ of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war," the Arizona senator told an overflow crowd of more than 800 at a retirement community near Hilton Head Island, S.C. "The price is very, very heavy and I regret it enormously." McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate...

Senator John McCain said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years. He said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (news - bio) will be remembered as one of the worst to ever hold the job. He said the United States is paying a heavy price for the mismanagement. He said Rumsfeld never put enough troops on the ground to succeed in Iraq. Former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating and former Texas Senator Phil Gramm were at his side. Both endorsed McCain over the weekend.