Oh, No, You Didn't

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14570794/from/RS.1/

Donald Frickin' Rumsfeld.  Some highlights:

In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the administration’s critics as suffering from “moral or intellectual confusion” about what threatens the nation’s security and accused them of lacking the courage to fight back.

Interesting... I know exactly what threatens the nation's security.  The Bush administration's failed foreign policy.  You see, I don't want to appease terrorists, I want to arrest and imprison them... you know, like we did with those who bombed the WTC the first time, or those who bombed the USS Cole... now in jail serving life sentences.  You see, when you can point to that sort of reaction to terrorists, you can take the moral high ground away from them.  You take away recruiting tools.

As far as suffering from "intellectual confusion"... have you heard your boss speak?  Damn, have you heard yourself speak?  Intellectually, I can understand that the terrorists harbor some sort of grudge against the USA and that there needs to be some way to find the root cause and address it to stop terrorism.  You cannot, despite your insistence, wage war on a feeling.  I cannot declare war on lust or on envy.  Intellectually you could argue that I am being facetious, but as you and your masters are not interested having a reasoned, intellectual discussion with those people in this country who could understand and argue, you will break it down into soundbites and folksy sayings.

Rumsfeld recalled a string of recent terrorist attacks, from 9/11 to bombings in Bali, London and Madrid, and said it should be obvious to anyone that terrorists must be confronted, not appeased.

“But some seem not to have learned history’s lessons,” he said, adding that part of the problem is that the American news media have tended to emphasize the negative rather than the positive.

He said, for example, that more media attention was given to U.S. soldiers’ abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib than to the fact that Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith received the Medal of Honor.

“Can we truly afford to believe somehow, some way, vicious extremists can be appeased?” he asked.

“Those who know the truth need to speak out against these kinds of myths and lies and distortions being told about our troops and about our country,” he added

Hmm, another old chestnut... It's the media's fault.  The media is reporting only negative news.  Well guess what Don, when the choice is showing that there is a systematic removal of the USA standing as a world leader in human rights because of Torture tactics being sanctioned by those at the very top and reporting that someone got a medal for being a hero, the standing of the USA comes first.  The hero should get his kudos, we should all thank him and people like him for his service.  But the fact that his service is being denegrated by people like Rumsfeld and Cheney and Bush is far more newsworthy.  I mean, it's not as if someone in the Bush administration laughed off the Abu Gharaib torturing by saying "I don't see being made to stand as torture, I have to stand a lot as part of my job."  Oh, wait, you did.  Asshole.

Rumsfeld made similar arguments in Reno about doubters of the administration’s approach to fighting terrorism, saying too many in this country want to “blame America first” and ignore the enemy.

No, I blame you and your masters first, and despite what you may try and convince people of, you and they are NOT AMERICA!!!!!