Rumsfeld's Crusade Memos

GQ:

On the morning of Thursday, April 10, 2003, Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon prepared a top-secret briefing for George W. Bush. This document, known as the Worldwide Intelligence Update, was a daily digest of critical military intelligence so classified that it circulated among only a handful of Pentagon leaders and the president; Rumsfeld himself often delivered it, by hand, to the White House. The briefing's cover sheet generally featured triumphant, color images from the previous days' war efforts: On this particular morning, it showed the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down in Firdos Square, a grateful Iraqi child kissing an American soldier, and jubilant crowds thronging the streets of newly liberated Baghdad. And above these images, and just below the headline secretary of defense, was a quote that may have raised some eyebrows. It came from the Bible, from the book of Psalms: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him...To deliver their soul from death."

Read the whole story: GQ

Comments

[MissKaren]

09:55 AM on 05/19/2009

Whatever negative it says about Rummy, think about what it said about Bush -- a man out of control of his own administration and capable of being moved to action by whomever pressed the right buttons. He was a figurehead, empty and feckless.

[bpress]

01:31 AM on 05/19/2009

More inflammatory than pictures of torture. This will provide proof to many that the 'war on terror' and the Iraq war were waged as a Crusade.

[cynara]

10:41 AM on 05/19/2009

Agreed. For some reason this appalls me in a way that even photos of torture couldn't reach. What the hell? My country fighting a "holy" war, based on one man's version of dogma? Hell no!

[BayouBorn]

01:09 PM on 05/18/2009

WTF, WTF, This is the biggest WTF moment of the former Bush adminstration.

WTF were the former President and Secretary of Defense thinking? Why didn’t Bush have the common sense or highschool knowledge of Civics to remind Rumsey of a thing called Separation of Church and State. It boggles my legal mind b/c yes folks it violates the Lemon test(Separation of Church and State)—“government documents prepared by the Secretary of Defense, given to the President on a daily basis, with religious writings inscribed on them—in connection with the function of the Executive”—significant entanglement folks. Good God this situation could be a bar exam question on Constitutional law. If you want to hear more check me out on the Political Jaguar's Blog
http://polijag.wordpress.com/

[Tom Joad]

01:46 PM on 05/18/2009

They were thinking that they were fulfilling Biblical prophecies. duh.

[johndtuttle]

02:00 PM on 05/18/2009

This was the White House that had prayer meetings every morning before deciding the next step in the "This crusade, this war on terrorism"... Which is of course an oxymoron as the Crusades were a waging of terror against the Muslim world.

Only the learned see the contradiction here, not true believers.

[alwqb]

12:54 PM on 05/18/2009

It took me awhile to find this story to show my husband when I read it just the following day. Why?

Are the stories false or are we hiding the fact that Bush was leading an American war in the name of his religion?

[JFD8]

12:00 PM on 05/18/2009

A pious Commander-in-Chief
Needs tailoring to his belief
If you want him to look
You just quote the Good Book
So Rummy adjusted his brief.

News Short n' Sweet by JFD8
http://twitter.com/JFD8

[MissKaren]

10:00 AM on 05/19/2009

JFD8 told in verse
A tale that couldn't be worse
A mistake nearly tragic
Moved by foul magic
We're lucky we don't need a hearse.

[PSM42]

10:45 AM on 05/18/2009

MCNAMARA / RUMSFELD

McNamara committed exactly the same crimes as Rumsfeld - gen0c1dal illegal war. But he appears not to have been stupid enough to issue memos that expose him to ridicule after the fact.

If you were surprised by your government's mu. rder0us activities and absolute lack of remorse have a look at the documentary on Nixon's Secretary of Defense - McNamara. It is not new. S0c10pathy on screen.The Fog Of War. - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8653788864462752804

Ditto John St0ckwell - http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Stockwell/StockwellCIA87_2.html

[nootrope]

10:39 AM on 05/18/2009

Isn't this a serious Constitutional violation? The government is promoting a religious POV, one in this case from christianity. Why isn't this front and center all over the media?

[minimalist syntax]

02:25 AM on 05/19/2009

Those statements come from Christian documents, but they do not promote the view point of Christianity. They promote the view point of evil.

[JohnFromCensornati]

07:02 AM on 05/19/2009

LOL. Je$u$ should have refrained from making those all-purpose kind of statements that could be used against him then. Poor planning.

[aview999]

10:13 AM on 05/18/2009

I dont understand why this is now so far down Huffingtons homepage. Comments are past 3000, which is quite high for a piece.
I want everyone to see these memos.

[Tom Joad]

10:09 AM on 05/18/2009

If you think the covers of these memos are offensive, you should see the text on the inside...

[tippydog11]

07:38 AM on 05/18/2009

One more thing....Remember God gave all "Free Will" to chose and God "forces" no one to love him or obey him....to do so God would be a liar.

Remember God did not destroy Adam or Eve when they disobeyed him or murder them, but removed them from his Kingdom. To murder them God would be a liar...free will God gave a promise, truth!

Remember God did not destroy Cain when he murder his brother Abel...but put a seal on him so no one would harm him and left him to wonder through out the land for the rest of his live --God separated Cain from God...lived in darkness to wonder alone

Remember Satan was a great deceiver liar--Satan also used scripture, quoted it .. to tempt and deceive Jesus into sin, disobedience---tempt him to worship Satan through offering Jesus materialism, greed, worship of idols, but Jesus knew who Satan was and rebuke Satan with the very truth of God's word.....Jesus put on the armor of truth...God's word ---

God never ordered anyone King to kill anyone..God would be asking us then to be a murder....God would be a liar...Thou shall not kill----

God told if a murder is found guilty, put them in a town of their own...separate them from other people..

[kwinter]

09:17 AM on 05/18/2009

Remember when Gawd murdered everyone in the world, except Noah and his family?

What's your point?

[FGDinVA]

10:57 AM on 05/18/2009

I think it's "Beware of those who use the Bible to justify their selfish interests."

[minimalist syntax]

02:41 AM on 05/19/2009

Unless you are a fundamentalist, where you believe a text, in this case the Bible, contains all meaning and the readers of the text and the community the text is read in contribute nothing to the meaning, then your point is not really relevant as a refutation. These types of acts-- including God smiting all the first born sons of Egypt but passing over the children of Israel are understood as a battle between gods: the true God, and the false gods of Egypt (from the perspective of the Bible-- this is the true and false divide) in the case of Egypt, in the case of the flood there is also a battle between the true God and false gods.

[tippydog11]

07:16 AM on 05/18/2009

beware beware of this --God forewarns us of those as a sign in the end of times evil works of men will even use scripture to deceive others..to do their..evil works among men...beware..not the gospel of Jesus, but beware of those who use scripture and create their own gospels

---Remember Satan appeared as an angel also and used "scripture" to deceive Jesus..twist the truth...but Jesus knew it.....beware we were warn....of this...these men, their image is not the reflection of Jesus or their own actions...

[Tom Joad]

10:07 AM on 05/18/2009

ok. thanks for the 'heads up'...

[kwinter]

10:52 AM on 05/18/2009

LOL

[JohnFromCensornati]

06:59 AM on 05/19/2009

The End is near.

[1differentdrummer]

05:53 AM on 05/18/2009

Mein Kampf.

[mouselion]

12:11 AM on 05/18/2009

"Their wise ones said we might have their religion, but when we tried to understand it, we found that there were too many kinds of religion among the white men for us to understand, and that scarcely two white men agreed which was the right one to learn. This bothered a great deal until we saw that the white man did not take his religion any more seriously than he did his laws, and that he kept both behind him like Helpers, to use when they might do him good in his dealings with strangers. These were not our ways. We kept the laws we made and lived our religion. We have never been able to understand the white man, who fools nobody but himself."

Chief Many Coups (1848-1932)
Crow Nation
___________
Some things seem to never change, do they?
___________

[FGDinVA]

10:55 AM on 05/18/2009

This is a phenomenal quote. It begs the question of who were (are) the "savages" afterall.

[Ben America]

11:55 PM on 05/17/2009

There is a very strong evangelical movement within the military. But does that mean if the policy of the US is somehow in conflict with the 'Will of God" a soldiers loyalty could come into question?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9bjok_and-he-shall-be-judged_news

[vascopyjama]

11:38 PM on 05/17/2009

The scary part is that throughout the Bush/Cheney administration where apparently torture was the norm, there were no street demonstrations because that would have been unpatriotic. Now Obama mentions the word "abortion" and people get upset.

[wkt20]

12:12 AM on 05/18/2009

Actually, that's not true. There were major demonstrations; they just didn't get covered by the media.