All Hail Don Rumsfeld!

“Look, it's a sovereign country.”

So insisted Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld just yesterday. He was talking about Iraq.

In fact, Rumsfeld referred to Iraq as sovereign four times and said it was “their country” seven times. Logical assumptions are dangerous territory these days, but I would venture to propose that Rumsfeld means to say, simply, that Iraq isn’t our property.

Rumsfeld further explains U.S. responsibility towards this sovereign country on Iraq. He emphatically states, “First of all, you can't [protect their border], because it's not our country, it's their country.” He growls, “[Iraqi’s I’ve met] know that they're the ones that are going to have to grab that country.”

Cornered on a certain point, Rumsfeld admits he has forgotten exactly when the US forces took over the Iraqi police forces. Marine Peter Pace reminded him that it was just “6 months ago.” I can only assume that Rumsfeld is either losing it, or else that taking over the Iraq Police (two years into the American occupation) is somehow legitimately part of Iraq sovereignty in the bizarre and Byzantine world of Rumsfeldia.

As security and terrorism consultant Larry Johnson points out wonderfully, Peter Pace asserted himself for a brief moment in this press conference. Pace corrects his boss on what exactly American soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines are supposed to do when they witness “inhumane treatment” of any person in Iraq. Rummy feels that the witnesses should report what they saw up the chain. You know, like Captain Ian Fishback of the 82nd Airborne tried to do.

It went down like this:

Pace: “It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene to stop it.”

Rumsfeld: “But I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it.”

Pace: “If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it.”

Well, well, well! General Pace later messed up with his boss again, in referring to the Iraq insurgents as insurgents, failing to correctly use the latest Pentagon newspeak of “terrorists” or “enemies of the state.” Whatever is the world coming to?