Rumsfeld's history

Just ran across this from Rumsfeld's speech yesterday at the Army War College.

"From time to time, one hears the claim that terrorist acts are reactions to particular American policies. That's not so," he said. "Their violence preceded by many years' operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and their violence will not stop until their ideology is confronted."

One little change, Don. "Their violence preceded by many years THE CURRENT operations in Afghanistan and Iraq." Cause, you know, I think I read somewhere that the US might've been involved in Iraq and Afghanistan before....

He also obliquely accuses critics of his Iraq war of aiding terrorists. And of course tries to blame the whole thing on the Clinton administration.

If this really represents his understanding of terrorism, is he really capable of leading this broad war? If he views both the Iraq insurgency and Al Qaeda as an isolated element stripped of it's historical context, is it any surprise that his policy of "kill them all" is being outstripped by terrorist recruiting which is fueled by his policy of kill them all? He just doesn't get it. And people are dying.

I'm beginning to see more and more McNamara in Rumsfeld.