It was in February of 2002 when our beloved Secretary of Defense uttered these words that would become famous throughout the Western world.
“The message is:
That there are known knowns,
There are things we know that we know,
There are known unknowns,
That is to say there are things that we now know, we don't know
But there are also unknown unknowns,
There are things we do not know we don't know
And each year we discover a few more
Of those unknown unknowns.”
It is now late in 2005 and there are some comments regarding this quote that I would like to make at this time. When they were first made, I was concerned about myself because I began to understand what he was trying to say. There is no new information contained in my comments however I just wanted to express myself in the context of Rumsfelds remarks. Perhaps this is frivolous, but what the hell, why not be frivolous?
That there are known knowns,
There are things we know that we know,
We now know that we know that:
Iraq had no WMD’s at all.
There was no link between Iraq and Al Queda
We were led (or misled) into the war for the wrong reasons.
The Defense Department spied on Americans
The administration planted at least one phony reporter in the White House pressroom to ask softball questions
We hired people to make up stories for paid covert insertion of slanted news in Iraqi media outlets
We condoned all sorts of illegal and improper torture of prisoners.
The Valerie Plame “leak” came from the highest levels of the White House.
The president approved of illegal searches of Americans by electronic means and then stretched the bounds of reasonableness by misleading America into believing that what he did was legal and in our countries best interest. In what appears to be a consistent position to take, the administration is validating its position be expressing the notion that we haven’t been attacked since we’ve been doing this and ergo, it must be OK!
The president knows how to change the subject by attacking whomever “leaked” the surveillance information to the public.
Whoever leaked this is a national hero, not a criminal.
That is to say there are things that we now know, we don't know
That is to say there are things that we now know, we don't know
We now know that we don’t know if:
The president knew exactly what weapons Iraq had or did not have.
The president knew that there were no connections between Iraq and Al Queda
There have been many more lies and deceptions, but we do not as yet know what they are.
The President and Vice President knew the source of the Plame leak nor do we know if they did, when they did.
Now here is the biggie
But there are also unknown unknowns,
there are things we do not know we don't know
And each year we discover a few more
Of those unknown unknowns.
That brings me to use what I consider another appropriate metaphor that I have stolen from one of my favorite songs.
“How can you believe me when I told you that I loved you when you know I’ve been a liar all my life”.
We do not know what else we do not know has been going on in this top secret and duplicitous administration. They have a five-year history of lies, deceptions, and omissions. We also don’t know if the president has ever noticed or read the constitution, or if the Attorney General of the United States has looked at it lately.
Because I can’t help myself, I need to resurrect and compare the famous known known sentence of “I did not have sex with that woman” which came close to bringing down our government to what is going on right now in our government.
Some comparison!
Now I feel better.