The Bush Crime Family just can’t help themselves. They lie. The continually try to rewrite history, and in some cases actually succeed!
This time, it’s Donald Rumsfeld, again, attempting the rewrite.
Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense who led the United States into the Iraq war, has told an interviewer that he did not think, at the time of the 2003 invasion, that building a democracy in Iraq was a realistic goal.
The statement contradicts speeches and memos that Rumsfeld, now 82, personally issued before and after the invasion of Iraq.
“The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic,” Rumsfeld told the Times of London. “I was concerned about it when I first heard those words … I’m not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories.”
Larry Wilmore explained
Today, I invited former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern back on the show. He’s the first guy to publicly call out Rumsfeld for his repeated attempts at rewriting history. Let’s go back to 2006…
As is the case every time we speak, Ray McGovern is fascinating. We spoke about Rumsfeld, Iraq, ISIS, whistleblowers and much more.
In the first hour, I was joined by Harvey J. Kaye, historian, professor of Democracy & Justice at University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, and author. His latest is The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great.
Since Hillary Clinton will hold her first big rally of this campaign at FDR Four Freedoms Park on Saturday, we thought it would be a good time to chat again. And it was!
Tomorrow, we’ll wrap up the week with our resident Republican, and a trip in the wayback machine for Flashback Friday, and whatever else the day’s news brings us, radio or not!
Nicole, I have one problem with Mr. McGovern’s views on an issue he briefly touched on in his discussion with you.
[from his Wiki article]
McGovern “declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration neocons so ‘the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.’ He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
With respect, I think he’s wrong about 3 points.
1. Sharon was against the Iraq War, because he thought Iran was the worse threat and taking out Saddam would only strengthen Iran. You can look this up – it’s true. Of course, he then soon fell into a coma. And I will agree that some U.S. neocons thought this would benefit Israel – although they were wrong.
2. I wonder what Mr. McGovern would say about Pakistan. After all, we call that country an ally and … well, I don’t need to discuss the rest. It is not the case that we have defense treaties with all U.S. allies. We have no defense treaty with many Latin American countries, that are still allies.
3. We can perhaps agree that Israel treats the Palestinians wrongly, and violates their human rights – I would accept that; there are some who have a Greater Israel view for annexing the West Bank. But, they do not have any goal to dominate or control the entire Middle East. Not EVEN Likud.
That said, thank you otherwise for twice bringing up Diane Rehm’s ridiculous “J’accuse” of Bernie Sanders.
BTW, since I was asked in the chat room on these three points, let me give your listeners access to three things:
1. Who coined the word anti-Semitism, and why he only meant Jews, even if, yes, of course, Arabs are Semites. (So are Chaldeans.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_people#Anti-Semitism_and_Semiticisation
2. The progressive wing of the Zionist movement – Likud and Revisionism and Religious Zionism is not all there is; there is also Labor Zionism, Meretz, Progressive Zionism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Zionism
3. The Zionist movement began because of Theodor Herzl, and the anti-Semitism he encountered at the Drefyus Trial – which began when Alfred Dreyfus was accused of disloyalty to the French state as a Jew. This is an old trope, Nicole.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Dreyfus.html