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Donald Rumsfeld heading to Stanford's Hoover Institution
San Jose Mercury News ^ | 9-7-07 | Lisa M. Krieger

Posted on 09/08/2007 9:15:32 AM PDT by STARWISE

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 States might consider going forward," Raisian said.

*snip*

The Hoover Institution is also the new home of retired Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, former commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), who is serving as its first Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow.

*snip*

"I haven't always been happy with what he has done in office, but from the perspective of a student, such a controversial person can only bring more discourse and debate to campus, which is a good thing from an academic perspective. College is about a multiplicity of ideas," said Carl Kelm, 20, the incoming president of Stanford Republicans.

Hoover research assistant Megan Reiss, 22, said that "People who served in top offices have very unique perspectives on current political and foreign policy perspectives that the rest of us don't have.'

"A lot of people think that if someone didn't do an impeccable job, or if they made mistakes in their political profession, that their opinion should be discredited. I disagree."

"He'll offer a perspective that we wouldn't get otherwise," she said.

(Excerpt) Read more at origin.mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: abizaid; centcom; hooverinstitution; rumsfeld; secdef

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

1 posted on 09/08/2007 9:15:36 AM PDT by STARWISE
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To: snugs; NordP; silent_jonny; Wolfstar; Kaslin; MamaB; DrDeb; tommix2; rintense; no more apples; ...

PING~~!


2 posted on 09/08/2007 9:17:44 AM PDT by STARWISE (They (Rats) think of this WOT as Bush's war, not America's war-RichardMiniter, respected OBL author)
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To: STARWISE

nice!

‘The Best of Donald Rumsfeld’
http://www.neoperspectives.com/rumsfeld.htm


3 posted on 09/08/2007 9:18:13 AM PDT by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/Ron_Paul_2008.htm)
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To: STARWISE; traviskicks

very nice..


4 posted on 09/08/2007 9:25:48 AM PDT by BARLF
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To: STARWISE
Thanks for the ping!

ALL THE BEST TO YOU DONALD RUMSFELD...STANFORD WILL BE LUCKY TO HAVE YOUR PRESENCE/PRESENTS ;-)

Rummy Rocks!!!

5 posted on 09/08/2007 9:27:24 AM PDT by NordP (HUNTER: "The real question for Mexico--Why are your people crossing burning deserts to get away?")
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To: STARWISE

Thanks for the ping


6 posted on 09/08/2007 9:29:20 AM PDT by Kaslin (The Surge has worked and the li(e)berals know it)
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To: STARWISE
Megan Reiss, 22... "A lot of people think that if someone didn't do an impeccable job, or if they made mistakes in their political profession, that their opinion should be discredited. I disagree."

Ah...a 22 year old expert on national defense...
7 posted on 09/08/2007 9:33:23 AM PDT by stylin19a (Go Bears !)
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To: STARWISE

self ping


8 posted on 09/08/2007 9:40:17 AM PDT by advertising guy (If computer skills named us, I'd be back-space delete.)
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To: STARWISE
the only thing rumsfeld screwed up was that he couldn’t break the liberal left-wing bureaucracy that is entrenched in the pentagon.
9 posted on 09/08/2007 9:45:43 AM PDT by JohnLongIsland
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To: traviskicks; All

They threw away the mold when they made him ... could not perfect the original.

I love these quotes .. thanks for reminding me.

~~~~~~~~~

Quotable Quotes (memorable one liners)

We would be happy to capture them, we’d be happy to have them surrender, and if they don’t, we’d be happy to kill them.

*

Well, the U.N. doesn’t have forces.

*

I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing [by Guantanomo prisoners] limited to 4 hours?

*

I know in my heart and my brain that America ain’t what’s wrong with the world.

*

There is nothing that some people don’t think.

*

You’re not asking the question that I’ve answered.

*

So why they would be actively proliferating and then complaining when the United States wants to defend itself against the, the fruit of those proliferation activities, it seems to me, is misplaced.

*

So the idea that you can assert a negative is a very difficult thing and I don’t make a practice of it.

*

I’m hopeful that some will surrender. I suspect some won’t, and I suspect the result of that will be that the opposition forces will kill them.

*

But I would guess if they’re knowledgeable unnamed sources, it would very closely approximate what I just said.

*

I tend to be impatient, so there’s no question but that from time to time I help people understand the difference between good work and poor work.

*

Now, on the other hand, if secretaries of defense resigned every time someone did something they shouldn’t do out of the millions of people involved in the defense establishment, or a mayor or a governor — something happened in their country, you wouldn’t have anyone in public office.

*

I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who once said that trying to transform the Army of the United States was like trying to empty the Potomac River with a teaspoon. It isn’t easy.

*

We’re not running out of targets. Afghanistan is.

*

I generally say roughly what I think.

*

I believe what I said yesterday. I don’t know what I said, but I know what I think, and, well, I assume it’s what I
said.

*

You’re reasonably correct as to what I said and I believe what I said is reasonably correct.

*

I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started.

*

We do know of certain knowledge that he [Osama Bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead.

*

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.

*

The enemies of order and democracy and freedom and civil society and rule of law have brains, regrettably. And they use those brains and they adapt.

*

On the other hand if you consider it carefully, the enemy has a brain.

*

The implication that every time something happens in the world, you should fire somebody is kind of a — not a — kind of a mindless approach, it seems to me — the implication of it.

*

Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

*

There’s another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn’t exist.

*

If I said yes, that would then suggest that that might be the only place where it might be done which would not be accurate, necessarily accurate. It might also not be inaccurate, but I’m disinclined to mislead anyone.

*

It’s unlikely that things will be perfectly predictable.

*

He’s [Zarqawi] a person that ought not to be out loose. He’s a killer, he’s a terrorist, he is a person who is helping facilitate and train and finance people that kill innocent men, women and children. And that’s not a terribly civilized thing to do and an awful lot of folks in the world would like to see it stopped.

*

People do that, take credit. I mean, we constantly have people after an incident call up and say, “We did it! Look at us; aren’t we wonderful? We killed a bunch of innocent men, women and children.”

*

Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal.

*

Beware when any idea is promoted primarily because it is “bold, exciting, innovative, and new.” There are many ideas that are “bold, exciting, innovative and new,” but also foolish.

*

If you try to please everybody, somebody’s not going to like it.

*

General, there was no verb in the last sentence.

*

Treat each federal dollar as if it was hard earned; it was - by a taxpayer.

*

Learn to say “I don’t know.” If used when appropriate, it will be often.

*

Success tends to go not to the person who is error-free, because he also tends to be risk-averse.

*

The idea that because you can’t do everything you shouldn’t try to do anything is really not a very persuasive argument, it seems to me.

*

You’re thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don’t. I think that’s old Europe.

*

If I know the answer I’ll tell you the answer, and if I don’t, I’ll just respond, cleverly.

*

With that I’ll stop and answer questions. Respond to questions.

~~~~~~~~

Rumsfeld’s Rules

http://www.analects-ink.com/weekend/020308.html


10 posted on 09/08/2007 10:23:18 AM PDT by STARWISE (They (Rats) think of this WOT as Bush's war, not America's war-RichardMiniter, respected OBL author)
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To: STARWISE

Good for him! He’s a hero.


11 posted on 09/08/2007 10:24:20 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: STARWISE
Drinking Coffee "It is not the critic who counts"

Teddy Roosevelt... Very apropos!   Good quote.

12 posted on 09/08/2007 12:38:23 PM PDT by HawaiianGecko (There are scandals that need to be addressed. Republicans address them, Democrats re-elect them.)
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To: STARWISE

I respected Don Rumsfeld...until he started treating our fighting men as enemies and prosecuting them.


13 posted on 09/08/2007 1:02:00 PM PDT by montag813
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To: STARWISE

I’ve already forgotten. Tell us again why he was such a failure. What it things he did or things he never did but should have?


14 posted on 09/08/2007 1:03:47 PM PDT by Theodore R. ( Cowardice is still forever!)
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To: stylin19a

I’d cut her a bit of slack. She did join the Hoover Institution, which shows good judgment on her part. And at age 18 I knew enough about defense to oppose detente and withdrawal from SE Asia (even knowing I’d be enlisting one day). Not all youngsters are airheads (though clearly, many are).


15 posted on 09/08/2007 1:16:25 PM PDT by Larry Lucido (Hunter 2008)
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To: Theodore R.

Oh, that. It seems he just wasn’t ...... omniscient... and perfect.


16 posted on 09/08/2007 1:55:18 PM PDT by STARWISE (They (Rats) think of this WOT as Bush's war, not America's war-RichardMiniter, respected OBL author)
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To: JohnLongIsland
the only thing rumsfeld screwed up was that he couldn't break the liberal left-wing bureaucracy that is entrenched in the pentagon.

Didn't Clinton put in an avowed socialist in the Pentagon in such a way to avoid a confirmation because the dope was so radioactive?

17 posted on 09/08/2007 1:58:09 PM PDT by Thebaddog (My dogs are asleep paws up)
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To: STARWISE

Great quotes! I sure miss those Rummy press conferences! There’s been nothing so good on TV since.


18 posted on 09/10/2007 11:05:54 PM PDT by baa39
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