…truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.
— Thomas Jefferson
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently accused those who would dissent or disagree with the government of suffering from “moral or intellectual confusion about what is right or wrong.”
In a toughly worded speech to the American Legion’s national convention in Salt Lake City, Rumsfeld compared the current period to the 1930s, when the world failed to act against the growing menace of the Nazi movement.
“Once again, we face similar challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism,” Rumsfeld said. “It seems that in some quarters, there is more of a focus on dividing our country than acting with unity against the gathering threats.”
His comparison to the Nazi movement is correct, but he’s confused on who in our country most resembles that racist and power hungry disaster of political machinery. Instead of endorsing and encouraging one of our nation’s most cherished and sacred rights — that of free speech, not to mention the spirit of our Founding Fathers in the heart of dissent and skepticism towards government, Rumsfeld instead continues to support the premise that anyone who does not blindly follow the policies of this wayward group of violent brutes must somehow be guilty of sedition or treason.
As if seeing our democracy at work through debate will somehow weaken us, the entire administration is now of the mind that disagreement must be crushed at all costs in order to ensure our security. In other words, kill what makes America great in order to save it. What a clueless bunch of un-American assholes. They sully the very spirit of our great nation by stealing away from us all that so many died to protect and provide: freedom, liberty, and justice. What they are trying to erect in its place is the new Nazi state borne of Taliban-like theocratic fascism that suckles at the teat of FUD.
Rather than addressing problems and concerns, and rather than engaging critics in constructive dialogue, the only intent of this régime is to steal power from anywhere it can while subjugating the populace with screeching declarations of impending doom if people do not give up more rights and stop fighting for the American way of life.
But this particular idiot wasn’t done chewing on his shoe.
Rumsfeld also criticized the American media for what he characterized as a preoccupation with reporting only the negative aspects of the conflict in Iraq and the larger war against terrorism.
He said a database search of leading newspapers turned up 10 times more mentions of abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison than to the fact that Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith was awarded the Medal of Honor.
“It’s inexcusable,” Rumsfeld said. “Those who know the truth need to speak out against these kinds of myths and distortions that are being told about our troops and our country.”
Do you get what he’s laying down? When the press reports on bad news, especially when there’s so much of it, it’s “myths and distortions” instead of truth. We know our soldiers were pushed into horrific acts of barbarity at Abu Ghraib. We’ve seen the photos. We’ve seen the bodies. We’ve heard the admissions of guilt. We’ve seen the squirming attempts to shrug off responsibility by both administration officials and the military itself. Somehow we’re now to believe all of this is nothing more than machinations of a press gone wild and focusing on lies?
Again, Mr. Rumsfeld is quite confused and mistakenly accusing the press of the crimes of which he himself is guilty. What a pitifully lost little man whose hunger for power has destroyed all traces of his humanity, decency, honesty, integrity, sincerity, and Americanism. Welcome to the Fourth Reich, poppets.
But let’s not assume no one called him to the carpet for this atrocity and affront. Many have. The best is from Keith Olbermann at MSNBC. I’ve included the full text of his remarks below the fold and strongly suggest you read them. In the meantime, the video is below and should be required viewing for all Americans — even those like Rumsfeld and the rest of Dubya’s evil empire who have forgotten completely what it means to be an American.
By the way, Mr. Rumsfeld, it’s time for you to go. It’s been time for quite a while.