Rumsfeld Whopper: I Was Never Overly Optimistic About Iraq
Testifying before Congress today, Donald Rumsfeld said he has ?never painted a rosy picture? about Iraq, and that ?you would have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I have been overly optimistic?(h/t: ThinkProgress) That's just nonsense And we've got the proof -- in the form of Rumsfeld's own words (after the jump).
Testifying before Congress today, Donald Rumsfeld said he has ?never painted a rosy picture? about Iraq, and that ?you would have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I have been overly optimistic.? (video)
That’s just nonsense. How about this quote from a speech Rumsfeld delivered at Johns Hopkins on Dec. 5, in which he slammed the U.S. press for being overly negative in its Iraq reporting.
“[U.S. reporters] can compare Iraq as it is today to what it was three years ago: a brutal dictatorship, where the secret police would murder or mutilate a family member, sometimes in front of their children, and where hundreds of thousands of Iraqis disappeared into mass graves. From that perspective, Iraq today is on a vastly different and a greatly improved path.”
A vastly different path? The Baghdad morgue received 1,595 bodies last month. Last month! And that’s up 16% over May.
This year, the ground feels uncertain — facts are buried and those in power are working to keep them hidden. Now more than ever, independent journalism must go beneath the surface.
At Truthdig, we don’t just report what's happening — we investigate how and why. We follow the threads others leave behind and uncover the forces shaping our future.
Your tax-deductible donation fuels journalism that asks harder questions and digs where others won’t.
Don’t settle for surface-level coverage.
Unearth what matters. Help dig deeper.
Donate now.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.