Rumsfeld: ‘Be More Like Saddam’

Former SecDef Donald Rumsfeld evoked his madman self one more time in a memo submitted to the president prior to his “resignation” last month. The NYT has the story and the full memo.

Is Rumsfeld getting sympathy if not credit for what reads as a wholly ridiculous “sorry, buddy, I lied, we ARE losing” mea culpa?

Personally, I can’t seem to get past this particular passage:

Provide money to key political and religious leaders (as Saddam Hussein did), to get them to help us get through this difficult period.

It’s beyond me why this memo is grabbing headlines and moreso why it was considered by Baker’s Iraq Study Group. Their report will be released this week — its recommendations are expected to be resisted by the White House. But as evidenced by Paul Richter’s blunt reporting in today’s L.A. Times, Middle East leaders have had enough of Bush and his boys:

instead of flaunting stronger ties and steadfast American influence, the president’s journey found friends both old and new near a state of panic. Mideast leaders expressed soaring concern over upheavals across the region that the United States helped ignite through its invasion of Iraq and push for democracy — and fear that the Bush administration may make things worse.

In lieu of wasting anymore time on this rubbish, I’ll refer you to D-Day