STUFF HAPPENS!

(Garrett Bruno, Bradley Graham, Iraq Body Count)

(New England Journal, The Lancet, Robert Reid, Adam Schreck)

(Kris Habernehl, Craig Unger, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Actually one of the most astute comments that Donald Rumsfeld ever made, “Stuff Happens,” of course like most of the other stuff Rumsfeld uttered, he backed it up with other Rumsfeldism! Donald Henry Rumsfeld, a career politician and professional businessman was never at a loss for words, and I’m sure was a caustic individual to deal with.

 

Donald Henry Rumsfeld hit the ground running on July 9^th 1932, and rose through the ranks of childhood, his teenage years…..into adulthood, raising to lofty heights as the Secretary of Defense first from 1975 to 1977, youngest Secretary, under Gerald Ford, and then from 2001 to 2006 under George W. Bush. As the oldest Secretary of Defense!

 

Rumsfeld served in the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois from January, 1963 to March of 1969, and then at the federal level as Director of Economic Opportunity, May 1969 to December 1970, 9^th United States Ambassador to NATO, February 1973 to September 1974, 6^th White House Chief of Staff, September 1974 to November 1975, Secretary of Defense, November, 19 to January, 1977, and Secretary of Defense for a second time from January, 2001 to December, 2006.

 

Rumsfeld’s formative years seemed kind of like a person who knew what he wanted, and where he was going at an early age.  By the age of 17, Rummy was an Eagle Scout, and was the recipient of both the Distinguished Eagle Scout as well as the Silver Buffalo awards in 2006, as his affiliation with the Boy Scouts continued throughout his life.

 

Rumsfeld attended Baker Demonstration School, a private middle school and later graduated from New Trier High School. Rumsfeld attended Princeton University on a partial academic and NROTC scholarships and graduated with an A.B. in 1954. During this time Rumsfeld became an accomplished amateur athlete, participated in wrestler and was the captain of the Lightweight football team, playing defensive back.

 

THE GUY DOES GO BACK

Rumsfeld served as an Administrative Assistant to David S. Dennison, a Congressman from Ohio during the latter part of President Dwight Eisenhower’s administration. In 1959 Rumsfeld moved on to become a staff assistant to Congressman Robert P. Griffin of Michigan. Rummy took a sort of sabbatical from politics for a couple of years, 1960, through 1962 with an investment banking firm, A.G. Becker.

 

Rumsfeld served in the United States Navy from 1954 to 1957 as a naval aviator and a flight instructor, and transferred to the Naval Reserve and continued his naval service in flying and administration assignments as a drilling reservist, and retired with the rank of captain in 1989

 

Rumsfeld was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1962 at the age of 30, and was re-elected by large majorities in 1964, 1966, and 1968. While in Congress, he served on the Joint Economic Committee, the Committee on Science and Aeronautics, and the Government Operations Committee and was a leading co-sponsor of the Freedom of Information Act!

 

 

It was during these years, 1964-69 that Rumsfeld credits with introducing him to the idea of an all volunteer military, and to the economics of Milton Friedman, and the Chicago School of Economics.

 

I STAND BY WHAT I MEANT

Without any doubt, and stretch of the imagination, Donald Henry Rumsfeld sought and coveted the limelight, and as time passed, and as Rummy’s convictions solidified, Rumsfeld was little more than a ticking time bomb just looking for a place to blow. Clearly by 2001, Rumsfeld was a force to be reckoned with, and had lost the basic reality of his position….as a servant to the president, and answerable to the taxpayers of the United States.

 

Here is a small sampling of some of the idiotic statements that Rumsfeld seemed daily to pontificate to the media as well as to the people of the United States. At the time, during the height of his power, 2003-2005, Rumsfeld felt as if nothing could touch him.

 

STUFF HAPPENS, AND IT’S UNTIDY, AND FREEDOM’S UNTIDY, AND FREE PEOPLE ARE FREE TO MAKE MISTAKES AND COMMIT CRIMES AND DO BAD THINGS!

 

TO COVER-UP IS ALWAYS WORSE THEN THE EVENT!

 

I’M NOT INTO THE DETAIL STUFF; I’M MORE CONCEPT-Y.

 

ARGUMENTS OF CONVENIENCE LACK INTEGRITY AND INEVITABLY TRIP YOU UP.

 

If a person…..any person, no matter the political affiliation, the ethnicity, or the religion simply reads between the lines you grasp exactly how far removed from reality that Donald Henry Rumsfeld was. Here was a man, a most powerful man who was seemly in love with himself…..and how neat he felt that he sounded.

 

The downside of this picture was that Rumsfeld sent somewhat indirectly hundreds of thousands of men and women into harm’s way. A play on words has cost the deaths of thousands of people…..military and private contractors, and hundreds of thousands of civilians.

 

DID YOU MEAN THIS, DONNY

Oh ya were out of Iraq, been gone since December of 2011, it’s the date that all hostilities ended…..at least for the United States. However somebody forgot to tell which ever Islamic, political, military, and law enforcement groups still want to wage some sort of civil discord.

 

Let’s take a look at this past week, May 25-31:

Saturday, 25 May: 12 killed

Ishaqi, 7

Tikrit, 2

Baghdad, 1

Falluja, 1

Mosul, 1

 

Sunday, 26 May: 13 killed

Baghdad, 5

Mosul, 5

Samarra, 3

Monday, 27 May: 81 killed

Baghdad, 75

Skirgat, 2

Riyadh, 1

Khalis, 1

Mosul, 1

Hit, 1

 

Tuesday, 28 May: 45 killed

Baghdad, 22

Mosul, 5

Tamooz, 5

Albu Ajil, 2

Hibhib, 7

Kirkuk, 1

Baiji, 3

 

Wednesday, 29, May: 35 killed

Baghdad, 25

Mosul, 6

Baquba, 3

Riyadh, 1

 

Thursday, 30, May: 34 killed

Baghdad, 24

Samarra, 3

Tal Afar, 3

Mosul, 2

Anbar, 2

 

Friday, 31, May: 10 killed

Baghdad, 3

Falluja, 3

Muqdadiya, 2

Shirqat 1

Mosul al-Jadeedah, 1

 

Okay, Donny Boy, what-cha-gotta say about them apples, any catch phrase remarks…..no jokes, how about another set of numbers…..for May, In Iraq, the civilian death toll stands at 883 kind of leaves a guy speechless, and if I was in any way responsible…..like you are, I sure wouldn’t be going around the country of my birth, trumpeting a book that distances me from a war that I helped create!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!