Rummy's Rosy Scenarios

In his testimony this week before the Senate Armed Services Committee Hillary Clinton confronted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on his false statements about the situation in Iraq. This was Rummy's response:

"Senator, I don't think that's true. I've never painted a rosy picture. I've been very measured in my words. And you'd have a dickens of a time trying to finds instances where I've been excessively optimistic. I understand this is tough stuff."

I mosied on over to the DoD website today and decided to do a random search of Rumsfeld's comments about Iraq to determine who was lying. Would I have a "dickens of a time" finding some? It was shooting fish in a barrel, actually. No matter what month's transcripts I clicked on there were gems. Here are a few:

Carlson: (Inaudible.) Now we feel comfortable. What is our exit strategy?

Rumsfeld: The answer to that question is this: We have trained 200,000 Iraqis for police work, Army, border patrol, sight protection and civil defense work. They are now the biggest coalition partner. We have only 125,000 troops there. The Iraqis have 200,000. From zero up to 200,000. We are increasing them and training more and they are going to have to take over responsibility for their own security. And that’s the exit strategy.

We need to get their governance so they take over sovereignty sometime this year. And we need to keep them increasing the security forces so they can handle their own security we need to provide some assistance to get them on the path to democracy. I think we are making good headway.

Good headway? This was in January 2004 folks. Have we made "good headway since then? What about those 200,000 Iraqi security forces he mentioned? It's August 2006 and they still don't have that many. Definitely rosy.

And this:

Q: Tell New Mexico about the positives coming out of Iraq and why aren't we seeing it on TV?

"Rumsfeld: I don't know why we don't see it. But if you think of what's happened since the war ended, the major combat aspect of the war ended and we went into this low intensity conflict period, so many good things have happened. We've trained and deployed some 200,000 Iraqi Security Forces. We only have 125,000 forces there. So there the biggest coalition there. There’s a Central Bank, a new currency, the utilities are functioning, the oil production is higher than pre-war peaks at the present time. People are doing things. The refugees are returning back because it's better there than where they were."

"So is it perfect? No. Is there violence there? Yes. Are people still being killed? Yes. But the progress that's been made has been made so much faster than it was in post-war Germany; the contrast is remarkable."

Gee, to compare a post war situation to an in-war situation strikes me as rosy. He's certainly using his 200,000 talking point. And, continuing to use the same link as above:

"What they're going to find is an Iraq that's quite different from the Iraq that their predecessors over there found. It's an Iraq where the schools are open, the hospitals are there, they're working, there's now a central bank and a new currency. A great deal of good things are happening. There are also 200,000 Iraqi security forces that are participating, and they're now our biggest coalition partner."

And in March 2004, on Larry King Live:

"What’s taking place, really, is impressive. After a year the – in one year the schools are open with new textbooks; the hospitals are operating; the 1,200 clinics are functioning; the electricity is back up to roughly where it was; the oil liftings are up to roughly where they were prewar; the energy that one sees in the streets with cars and satellite receivers for television and people bustling around kiosks going – you have to remember, of course, Larry, that the people in this country have spent decades under a repressive political regime and also under a command economy where they were told what they must do. Suddenly, in this new environment, they can do anything that’s within the law, so everything’s been turned upside down and the energy that one sees is exciting."

"The country is – from a governance standpoint has a governing council, the provinces have governing councils, the cities have city councils, the – an interim constitution has been fashioned and making plans now to pass sovereignty back to the Iraqi people, so a great deal has been done. It took much longer, for example, in postwar Germany after World War II."

Well that was in early 2004. Why don't we move to summer 2005 and pick a month, say June, and see what we find from Fox News' Tony Snow:

SNOW: Senator Chuck Hagle last week said we're losing the war in Iraq. Is he right?

RUMSFELD: No. We're not losing the war in Iraq at all, and I don't think there's any military commander or person who's involved over there who believes that's the case. I've not heard that from anyone who's knowledgeable and engaged in it on a continuing basis.

It's a tough business and people are being killed and there are ups and downs and good days and bad days, but if one thinks about it, the schools are open, the hospitals are open, the textbooks are there, the court system's functioning, the political process is moving forward and the Iraqis went out, eight million people went out and voted and elected a transitional government. They're now working hard to draft a constitution. They're going to have elections under that constitution in December and they'll have a new, free Iraqi government.

Those elections sure made a difference didn't they? Certainly a rosy picture isn't it?

Alright, you say those were history, the man has changed. How about this from last month:

They now have a government that's a sovereign government that's going to be in place for four years, and the government's proceeding with some very important decisions. They're engaging in a reconciliation process. They're attempting to improve security in Iraq. They now have over 265,000 Iraqi security forces that are assuming more and more responsibility for the situation in that country, and that's the plan, is to keep turning over more and more of the responsibility to them, and that's exactly what we're doing. In fact, last week they turned over one of the provinces to the Iraqi government.

Sure it's going to last. This is a government that has no authority outside the Green Zone. In the midst of a civil war where 100 Iraqis are being killed every day just in Baghdad. Now he's saying there are 265,000 Iraqi security forces. So, if you believe this dolt we trained 200,000 Iraqi security forces by January 2004 but only 65,000 since. Hmmm, I don't find that a rosy scenario. I don't call that progress. Perhaps the Secretary was lying about that 200,000 number in all those interviews back in 2004. If so does that count as painting a rosy picture?

As I said, finding evidence was like shooting fish in a barrel. All of these quotes were taken right off the DoD website today. You can choose any month's transcripts and find more. Here's the bottom line: Senator Clinton confronted Rumsfeld with his lies and he denied them. His own website proves him wrong.

Did he lie to the Armed Services Committee? Yes. He should resign immediately.