Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell

There have been heaps of stories about Rumsfeld's book, including Fred Kaplan's excellent review.  This lunch with Rummy drives me a bit crazy since it once again demonstrates that Rummy is a lying sack of poor policy (or poop, for short).  Just the claim that he did not create a climate of fear in the Office of the Secretary of Defense is enough to drive me bonkers.  I saw it, I felt it, I heard on a daily basis during my year in the Pentagon.  It was more than palpable.  I worked with folks in OSD almost every day, and I was regularly being thankful that I had tenure, as these guys just were paralyzed with fear of their boss.  In a crisis, they were wary of bothering him after 7pm, delaying a decision and allowing it nearly fester into an anti-US riot. 

And yet, I have to read this book for my research.  Ug.  It was bad enough reading Bremer's, and now I have to read 800 pages of Rummy lying about everything.  He clearly was the worst SecDef in US history (but that only goes back to the late 1940's).  I don't know US history well enough to figure out whether he was worse than all of the Secretaries of War as well.  I will get it from a library as I don't want a single dollar from me to go to him, even if he gives some of the profits to charity. 

What a great administration! The worst SecDef and probably the worst National Security Adviser.  Plus a VP who shoots his friends in the face.  Glad to be only looking at these folks in the rearview mirror.