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Did Rumsfeld Ruin Bush?
Gerald Herbert / AP Photo
The 10 allegations in the GQ article making waves include ex-officials faulting the former Defense secretary for messing up Katrina, stiffing Kennedy of a medal—and putting out daily intelligence briefings adorned with quotes from the Bible.
Robert Draper’s new article for GQ leaves no stone unturned and no confidential memo unsealed in its examination of Donald Rumsfeld’s reign as Defense secretary. The Daily Beast presents Draper’s top 10 revelations:
The Crusades Cover Letters
Rumsfeld hand-delivered to the president a highly classified daily briefing on the war in Iraq called The Worldwide Intelligence Update. The cover letters were adorned with inspirational images like soldiers praying, Iraqi children gratefully embracing American soldiers, or tanks blasting through the desert. But the covers also contained inspirational passages from the Bible—a move that offended many Defense officials. A cover from March 2003 showed soldiers praying while holding automatic weapons. A passage from Isaiah surrounds the photo: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Here I am Lord, Send Me!” Another Isaiah passage adorns a photo of tanks blasting into Baghdad from the same month: “Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.”
The crusading cover letters made many uncomfortable, but sources say it was Rumsfeld’s way of cozying up to his religious boss—even if Rumsfeld himself was typically much more private about his religion.
Another Isaiah passage adorns a photo of tanks blasting into Baghdad: “Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.”
The Katrina Debacle
Rumsfeld threw truck-size obstacles in the way of deploying troops to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Claiming that there’d be problems with “unity of command,” Rumsfeld was adamant that only the National Guard be sent out—but they were slow in arriving and did little to stem the chaos. Bush snapped at him for the disorder in a meeting about the situation: “Rumsfeld, what the hell is going on there? Are you watching what’s on television? Is that the United States of America or some Third World nation I’m watching? What the hell are you doing?” Five days after the hurricane hit, Bush told Rumsfeld he had to deploy troops. “If we had put those troops in on Thursday, the narrative of Katrina would be a very different one,” one senior official said.
The Cold War Mentality
Though Bush and Vladimir Putin pledged to discuss everything from missile-defense systems to bilateral investment after their “sense of his soul” meeting in 2001, Rumsfeld could not shake his distrust of the country from his days as Gerald Ford’s secretary of Defense during the Cold War. Rumsfeld’s office cut off Bush’s attempts to cooperate with Russia, nixing the proposed observation satellite and a joint data-exchange center.
Ted Kennedy
Bush and his top advisers wanted to award the now-ailing Massachusetts senator a Presidential Medal of Freedom to reward the Democrat for his help passing the No Child Left Behind education initiative. The move would have come across as big-hearted and bipartisan, perhaps garnering Bush a few popularity points, but Rumsfeld shot down the idea. “They can’t give Kennedy a medal!” he said. “Not after he murdered that woman!” (He was referring to the Mary Jo Kopechne incident 40 years earlier on Chappaquiddick Island.)
How Rich People Smoke Pot
Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
Justice Clinton?
As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
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Slim45
You know, Bush should have rejected these memo covers, or at least told Rumsfeld to stop using them. How do you fight religious extremism by engaging in it yourself? But, heck, what am I talking about? We're talking about Bush after all...
CRich2
The conservatives blew it and now they have to face the music. The growth of " The Conservative Reconstruction Project" speaks for its self and there is another group who will take this party back.
ron517
These people are sick, sick,...sick!! How did we allow our country to come to this????
Tulku2
It was not "we". Hundreds of thousands of us were in the streets all over America with creative, dynamic protests. We remembered Cheney and Rumsfeld being in the crew that spent years drumming the "if the military would have just been allowed to take the gloves off, they could have won in Vietnam". We certainly understood what "taking the gloves off" could lead to with this crew.
The media ignored us for the most part. If such huge, creative demonstrations would have occurred anywhere else in the world, CNN would have had 24 hour coverage.
So don't say "we" allowed this if you were part of the resistance.
larry278
This is going to end up as a pissing contest. We are now seeing the start of the, "Who ruined W?", contest. The current leaders are Rumsfeld & Cheney.
W never was a plaster saint. W is a fecaloid phantasm & a real jerk. How could W be ruined? W wasn't more than $hit.
This will be an endless argument; it will be a subset of, "What is W's place in history?". It could become the 21st century's version of, "How many angels can dance on the point of a needle?".
WTF will care? How do you prove your argument? It is a question for a Moot Questions Court.
There are other questions: What was the dumbest thing W did?, Who was the dumbest cabinet member in W's administration?, How many W officials did it take to screw in a light bulb?
sippewissett
The question is not so much "Who ruined Bush?" as it is "How do all these stories reflect on Bush himself?" Bush chose Rumsfeld (over his father's advice, remember), along with Cheney and many of the Neocons who merrily LIED us into a war.
It was the collective arrogance of a dumber-than-dumb president and his devious advisors whose religiosity -- real or not -- turned war into a crusade. The best argument ever for separation of church and state!
denbro
Neocons lied...how about Geo Tenet, Hillary Clinton, Jay Rockefeller,
Madelyn Albright,etc?
PhilMcRoin
Karl Rove get's my vote. He got W into politics and out of the bars.. and he's also a disgusting human being..
DrewK79
It is looking more and more like Bush was just plain stupid. He was a stubborn man that was easily manipulated by those he trusted.
It also seems the ones who were doing the most manipulating could never win a national election so their only way to reach power was to manipulate their dumb friend.
I guess this shows we should not avg dummies to President. W was exactly that and instead or leading our country he simply allowed those around him to make the decision for him.
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n--Y--LordVaderroger37
Not only was W stubborn, he was entirely ego-driven. Our whole foreign policy was based around the fact that his ego would not allow him to be only a participant in a meeting---he had to control it. He couldn't match wits with other people who are capable of heading a state, so he didn't meet with them.
His agonizingly hateful habit of assigning everyone diminutive nicknames was a symptom of this. In each case, it gave Bush an elevation over the person (in his own mind).
JeronimoDan
That may be right, but behind his back he was refered to as "Dummie".
Like what's Dummie doing this morning?
AuntBarb
This reenforces my opinion on George W. Bush...a man of about average intelligence, who is much too easily swayed by others. Donald Rumsfeld is one of the people who saw this in Bush, and exploited it.
I never thought Bush was stupid, I do think one of his weaknesses was a tendency to surround himself with some mighty sly people.
democracy7
I believe he has sub average intelligence, he never exhibited any common sense, and certainly lacked the ability to lead. He allowed himself to be elevated to a position he was ill quallified for, and then promptly took vacation after vacation.
He did exhibit remarkable chutzpah, and never seemed to understand he had become a not very laughable standing joke.
TavernWench
That's a fascinating, newsbreaking story in GQ, and it deserves some recognition. It certainly answers the Katrina Question, that much is for certain.
Anyone who watched the Cheney-Bush sketch on SNL last night (with Bush played, of course, by Will Farrell, the man born to play him) gets it, though. Deflection, blame-games, whatever... the country knows it's all on Bush. Not Rumsfeld, not Cheney. Bush.
oliverckerr
The SNL sketch was a winner
xlntcat
You cannot lead someone where they are not willing to go. It appears that those more closely involved concurred long ago that Bush's Presidency was a result of those with whom he chose to surround himself. He was a weak and easily manipulated man. The bottom line is that Cheney and Rumsfelt are a direct reflection of Bush's weakness. Nonetheless, the buck stops at the president's desk.
Spasticula
It was readily apparent to me in the first days of his presidency he was a weak man. I got into it with a dumb, conservative relative, telling him "Bush will disgrace the nation in his first year." And I was right! So why did the media and his supporters continually insist that the glaring weakness on display was actually strength, and strong leadership? Because the US became a Soviet style politboro for the duration of Bush's reign. If I ever see this again, I will leave the country.
A succesful reality check from the profoundly weak Dems or the equally weak media could have forced the issue. But they were too busy backing down on every front.
roger37
You could conceivably have seen this again last November. McCain is a vain, intemperate man who is not nearly as contemplative as people think, and he has a reputation as being the kind of "leader" that is easily manipulated.
And his first major decision was to run with Sarah Palin as his VP candidate.The mind boggles when contemplating McCain's win last November. I think the nation doesn't know how important this election was, because we would have been down the tubes.
xbainx
I don't find this, any of it, surprising. What I find surprising is that the Republicans aren't outraged by this. Where is their outrage? The biblical quotes just strike me as humorous. I could find a picture of a man cutting off a dog's head with a sword and find a biblical quote that would make it seem inspirational.
Ritarita
Let's talk about August 6th, 2001. That's the day you got a memo warning about plans for possible attacks by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. What were you doing that day?
I'll be honest with you. I was at the ranch, on vacation. I was watching the Hall of Fame game on TV. First NFL preseason game of the year, hate to miss it, you know?
I'm the same way. It doesn't matter what teams are playing, I watch it.
Exactly. It's a long off-season, and you start to miss the game. So I'm watching it - I remember it was Miami and St. Louis. First time I ever saw Marc Bulger. He was just a backup to Warner then. I think he threw a touchdown in the fourth quarter. I thought to myself, "This guy looks pretty solid in the pocket. He might have a future in this league."
That's good foresight right there.
Anyway, it was right around then that they brought me my PDB [Presidential Daily Briefing], and it said something about bin Laden. I mean, we get these warnings about foreign terrorists all the time. How was I supposed to know he was going to attack in the United States?
Well, the memo was titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack in U.S."
It was?
Yes, sir.
Well, nobody told me that.
But they wrote it to you.
But nobody told me that they wrote it to me.
Who's "they"?
I don't know. Whoever is in the room. Vice President Cheney. Don Rumsfeld. Rove. Sometimes there's some other guys. It kind of rotates.
Do you decide who "they" is?
No, they usually decide who they is. Or at least one of they does. Usually Cheney.
Interesting. What did they tell you they wrote to you about why America needed to invade Iraq?
Sometime in the fall of 2001, pretty soon after 9/11, Rumsfeld and Cheney handed me a piece of paper. I asked them what was in it. Rumsfeld says, "Mr. President, we've just written you a memo explaining that we need to invade Iraq." And I said, "OK. Why?" And Dick says to me, "Because of 9/11, Mr. President." [Silence]
Is that the whole story?
Yeah. Why?
George W. Bush
Interviewed by Matt Taibbi
For Rolling Stone
January 2009
Ritarita
The jurists
At the Nuremberg trials
While prosecuting
German war crimes
Were struck by the
Banality of evil.
That it could have all
Happened with such
Matter-of-fact attitudes.
It may be helpful to
Point out that the first
Sentence of each paragraph
Belongs to Matt Taibbi
The rest of the paragraph
Is the voice of Bush.
roger37
Ritarita:
Good Lord. I'm not a regular reader of Rolling Stone, but this about floored me. Talk about "banality of evil." This is a real interview? The post by Aurora, shortly after this says that Taibbi's piece is "satire." What does that mean in this context?
democracy7
I am about speachless with shock. Is there any more proof of the very banality and stupidity of Dubya? This sadly illustrates his leadership abilities, how horrifyingly scary.
keepakeeper43
I'll never forget when Rummy was questioned why our troops did not have proper protection in vehicles that were not reinforced (humvees, etc), and not enough bulletproof vests for our troops, his answer was, without blinking, in his matter-of-fact, supercilious manner, "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you want".
(Many, many of our troops died due to little or no armor)
There he again earned the contempt he is always associated with. What a despicable, arrogant, piece of sh*t.
This article reveals very little.
And, who cares?
Aurora
Folks, before this conversation gets too far off the rails, remember that Taiibi's article was a satire.
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n--Y--LordVaderSteveStephens
Bush didn't become president with the Defense Secretary he needed, he became president with the Defense Secretary that he got, a corrupt retard.
drfadhel
I guess Osama was right, he called the American wars on Iraq and Afghanistan "Christian Crusades against Moslems" and all along I thought the US was secular, reality check! On the other hand this means that Osama and Don shared the same Brain DNA and the US system was hijacked for a while; by both. Anyway I am still waiting for the revelations about Darth Vader "Cheney ", I think he's the real star
fk4711
Now 120 days after the Bush administration, some truth finally comes out. But no matter how terrible and incompetent Rmuuy was, it is Bush who should be the one to take all the responsibility because he is the Commander in Chief. If he think Rummy is not making the right decision, they he should either insist on the right decision be made or fire him, but he did neither. Sure, this book made Rummy looks bad, but it makes Bush looks even worse. It proves that he is really out of the loop most of the time, leaving the country to Chaney and Rummy to run. That's why Chaney is now running all over tring to defend his record while Bush has nothing to say because he does not even know what went right and what went wrong. He has no stake in the matter or how history will judge him. He is the son who fulfill his duty of taking over the reign from the elder King Bush, did his duty and retired to his ranch. He'd rather be throwing out ball at baseball game then thinking about the fate of America. It was fun for a couple minites, but eventually the Presidency proved too much a bother. By golly, he wants to go to bed by 10 PM and sometimes he had to stay up for the country entertaining foreign dignities after his bed time. It's all very unfortunate that the American people elected this reluctant prince TWICE for a job he half-heartedly wanted (only to prove to his old man and to irk his younger brother, the more handsome and telented prince who has been wating in the wing FOREVER!).
I can only say than god for Obama, who (in the Newsweek interview this week) works for us over time from 8:30 AM to 12:30 AM (other than mealtimes and 2 hours of family time with his girls), who read through all the briefing papers and think hard while making decisions that have great consequences to the lives of American people.
Thank you.
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