There is no one I’d rather read a scathing obit of Rumsfeld than from George Packer—one of the best chroniclers of the Iraq War—and this does not disappoint. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
“ Wherever the government contemplated a wrong turn, Rumsfeld was there first with his hard smile—squinting, mocking the cautious, shoving his country deeper into a hole. His fatal judgment was equaled only by his absolute self-assurance. He lacked the courage to doubt himself. “
“Rumsfeld started being wrong within hours of the attacks and never stopped. He argued that the attacks proved the need for the missile-defense shield that he’d long advocated. He thought that the American war in Afghanistan meant the end of the Taliban….”
“…He thought that the new Afghan government didn’t need the U.S. to stick around for security and support. He thought that the US should stiff the United Nations, brush off allies, and go it alone. He insisted that al-Qaeda couldn’t operate without a strongman like Saddam. …”
“…He thought that all the intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was wrong, except the dire reports that he’d ordered up himself. He reserved his greatest confidence for intelligence obtained through torture. …”
“…He thought that the State Department and the CIA were full of timorous, ignorant bureaucrats. He thought that America could win wars with computerized weaponry and awesome displays of force.”
“…He believed in regime change but not in nation building, and he thought that a few tens of thousands of troops would be enough to win in Iraq. He thought that the quick overthrow of Saddam’s regime meant mission accomplished…”
“…He responded to the looting of Baghdad by saying “Freedom’s untidy,” as if the chaos was just a giddy display of democracy—as if it would not devastate Iraq and become America’s problem, too….”
“…He believed that Iraq should be led by a corrupt London banker with a history of deceiving the US government. He faxed pages from a biography of Che Guevara to a Army officer to prove that the growing Iraqi resistance did not meet the definition of an insurgency….”
“…He dismissed the insurgents as “dead-enders” and humiliated a top general who dared to call them by their true name. He insisted on keeping the number of US troops in Iraq so low that much of the country soon fell to insurgency…”
“…He focused his best effort on winning bureaucratic wars in Washington.”

Damn
Just want to add that Packer's book on George Holbrooke was one of the best books I have ever read and I am not an FP nor a "great man" biography geek:

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More from @ClaraJeffery

1 Jul
Ok folks help me out. Washington DC, roughly 1985. And my HS date took me to an extremely art house film with a title that sounds something like

Quojanskanski

which, as i recall, was uttered over and over again, and perhaps was the only dialog?
It was our only date.
Thank you twitter it was: Koyaanisqatsi en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanisq…
Read 9 tweets
1 Jul
I'm going to append this righteously eviscerating account of Rumsfeld the public figure with a gentler account per my dad of the man in retirement...at least compared to Dick Cheney.

This involves Chicken Hawks in retirement on the Eastern Shore, lets go.
So Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld both had homes ~St. Michaels MD, which is about 2 hrs away from DC, and where my Dad also lived. (Paul Wolfowitz, also nearby. And David Bradley! But anyway.)
Rumsfeld vs Cheney as public figures, I defer to Packer and others.

Rumsfeld vs Cheney as private neighbors? No fucking contest. Cheney was seen as a total monster, Rumsfeld as an ok guy. (To be clear, my dad reviled both their politics.)
Read 10 tweets
29 Jun
1/ I'm sorry but this piece has several data/categorization flaws that need to be called out.
2/ Deep in the source credits comes this: "Axios created five groups of publishers based on assessments of their news bias, in consultation with news bias ranking service NewsGuard." But NewsGuard specifically categorizes us as "left-leaning", not "far left"
3/ I mean, I'd quibble with the one ding Newsguard gave us but if Axios is going to use their sorting methodology, then you don't get to arbitrarily reassign us to "far left" just because it better fits your bullet points thesis.
Read 16 tweets
29 Jun
So many bad design trends and decisions in one framing shot
Yes, the obvious intoxication/incoherence is probably more important but:
*barn door over empty bookcase
*everything is beige
*terrible horse art
*beige stone accent wall, with mounted TV (NO!)
*ubiquitous HGTV carriage light fixture
*fake beams
*divorced dad mega mansion vibe
why does a bookcase need a barn door? it does not. barn doors should be used incredibly sparingly, like when there's utterly no room for swing or, far more rarely than people realize, there's a coherent aesthetic at play.
Read 4 tweets
25 Jun
Scoop: The FBI searched the house of a Giuliani associate yesterday. by @dfriedman33 and @russchoma motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
"Rudy Giuliani is a loose cannon, rolling around the Oval Office with another loose cannon, namely the president, and chaos is developing," --Rep. Garamendi motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
Biggest week in Rudy we've had for awhile: motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2021…
Read 4 tweets
21 Jun
Haven't read this piece yet but I'm using it as an excuse to remind/introduce you to this 80stastic song about Cézanne by The Special Guests
Who made it into the mission of this music promoter who was (is?) attempting to track down the music of old college bands and digitize them: wsj.com/articles/SB100…
Columbia! I hear I was listening to them at Carleton. That's kind of amazing, given the tech/comms of the day.
Read 5 tweets

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