washingtonsblog.com
When Donald Rumsfeld used to hold press conferences about the
Iraq war, the press corps would giggle at the clever ways in which he
refused to actually say anything or answer any questions.
In a new film about Rumsfeld called The Unknown Knowns, the
aging criminal is occasionally confronted with evidence that what he’s
just said is false. He maintains a frozen grin and acts as if nothing
has happened. The film’s director, interviewing Rumsfeld, never presses
the truly uncomfortable points.
The closest the film comes to asking Rumsfeld about the wrongness of
launching a war on Iraq is with the question “Wouldn’t it have been
better not to go there at all?” Not “Wasn’t it illegal?” Not “Do you
believe 1.4 million Iraqis were killed or only 0.5 million?” Not “When
you sleep at your home at the Mt. Misery plantation where they used to
beat and whip slaves like Frederick Douglass how do you rank the mass
slaughter you engaged in against the crimes of past eras?” Not “Was it
at least inappropriate to smirk and claim that ‘freedom is untidy’ while
people were destroying a society?” And to the only question that was
asked, Rumsfeld is allowed to get away with replying “I guess time will
tell.”
Then Rumsfeld effectively suggests that time has already told. He
says that candidate Barack Obama opposed Bush-era tactics and yet has
kept them in place, including the PATRIOT Act, lawless imprisonment,
etc. He might have added that President Obama has maintained the right
to torture and rendition even while largely replacing torture with
murder via drone. Most crucially for himself, he might have noted that
Obama has violated the Convention Against Torture by barring the
prosecution of those responsible for recent violations. But Rumsfeld’s
point is clear when he notes that Obama’s conduct “has to validate”
everything the previous gang did wrong.
