From today's Democracy Now!:
Rumsfeld Compares Anti-War Activists to Backers of Stalin
Meanwhile the Bush administration appears to have launched a coordinated effort to discredit the anti-war movement. On Tuesday, President Bush, White House spokesman Trent Duffy and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld all took jabs at critics of the war. Duffy described the critics as people who don't believe the U.S. must win the war on terror. And Rumsfeld compared anti-war activists to American supporters of Joseph Stalin. He said "Throughout history there have always been those who predict America's failure just around every corner... Many Western intellectuals praised Stalin... For a time, Communism was very much en vogue... thankfully the American people are better centered. They ultimately come to the right decisions on big issues. And the future of Iraq is a very big issue."
So Donald Rumsfeld wants to go "historical?" Well he really doesn't need to go that far, does he?
If he wants to talk about people appeasing tyrants, he doesn't even have to crack a book -- well, possibly his diary.
What was the year that Donald Rumsfeld, grinning, met with Saddam Hussein? Shook his hand, joked with him, made nice?
If that memory has fogged over the last twenty plus years, Rummy can open his diary and look for the entry for December 20, 1983.
How might that entry read?
Dear Diary,
There are knowables and unknowables but oh boy do I now know Saddam! He's so groovy and rules with an iron fist. There's no leader I'd rather embrace!!!!!
He's a strong presence. So strong that my knees went a little weak. That's why I didn't bring up his using chemical weapons on Iran. I'd thought maybe telling him how that blew me away, but when we embraced, the only thing I could think of was Sergio Mendes' "Never Gonna Let You Go." That song totally rocks! And I can tell me and Saddam are going to be tight for years to come.
He likes good music too! He taught me to do the robot to Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue!"
He is so cool! Boy, am I glad we've kept him in power!
He told me I reminded him of Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club and I was all, "Oh my God! I was just thinking how you were Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club!" He was all, "No way!" and I was all, "Totally way!"
I told him we saw the Persian Gulf like detention and we needed a strong guy like him, or Judd Nelson, to protect our interests.
For a second, he freaked me out because he made this totally mean face and started snarling,
"Don't you ever talk about my friends. You don't know any of my friends. You don't look at any of my friends. And you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends. So you just stick to the things you know: shopping, nail polish, your father's BMW, and your poor, rich drunk mother in the Caribbean. "
At first, I thought, "Good God, he really is a madman!" Then I realized he was quoting Judd Nelson from Breakfast Club!
He rocks!!!!!!
We had our picture taken together and I'm pasting it in here, Dear Diary, but I'm not real crazy about the way the flash makes my shirt look like it's pink!!!! But I like the way it makes my hair look shiney like Brooke Shields in those Wella Balsam commericals. Joyce keeps telling me I'm losing my hair but what does she know? At the White House, they all tease me about my full head o' hair! Jealous much? They're all upset because with the soft shimmers and the way I wear it, I look like a cooler Alex P. Keaton!!
As long as I have my health and my hair, I'm unstoppable! Some day me and Saddam are going to be sitting on top of the world, controlling everything! I just know it!!!!!!
Dear Diary, you know how I am always the ultimate judge of character and I am telling you that Saddam Hussein is a stand up guy. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!
Does he really want to go "historical?"
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