A History Lesson For Dumsfeld

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wants us to take a lesson from history. He wants us to go straight to fantasy land, too.

It's all here in the headline and the lead paragraph: Rumsfeld warns against ignoring history in war on terror

WASHINGTON -- Americans must take a lesson from history and not believe the terrorist threat has been exaggerated or will go away, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday.

We'll get to the history lesson in a minute, Mr. Rumsfeld. But first let's consider whether the terrorist threat has been exaggerated, and whether it will go away.

Americans Must Not Believe The Terrorist Threat Has Been Exaggerated

Apparently, Americans should believe everything they read everywhere, including rumors which are clearly labeled as such.

For example, Dirty bomb threats target NFL stadiums

CNN is currently reporting dirty bomb threats targeting specific NFL stadiums.

Law enforcement agencies and the Department of Homeland Security indicate that there is no reason to believe the threats are credible, but add that they are alerting the stadiums involved.

No! There's nothing exaggerated about that! And there was nothing exaggerated about any of the other stories that have gripped us by the throats, such as the one about the people who were going to make bombs out of household liquids and use them to blow up airplanes. (See, for example, "To Mix The Impossible Bomb".)

Rumsfeld's call for perseverance comes three weeks before the Nov.7 elections, as members of Congress face a public growing increasingly unhappy and impatient with the war in Iraq. The ruling Republicans face the prospect of losing control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to opposition Democrats.

The unnamed AP writer stops short of saying that Rumsfeld's "call for perseverance" is clearly politically motivated. Why? Because that would be the first step down a very steep and slippery slope? Because then it would make sense to mention that the color-coded terror alert levels were raised and lowered for political advantage. Because that would lead to speculation about how many other things -- including alleged terrorist plots -- have been raised and lowered for political advantage. Because that would inevitably lead to a full unravelling of all the Orwellian doublespeak and all the other nonsense we've been fed for the past five years, one month and one week...

So ... Who sat there and bought all this nonsense? Who stood and cheered at the end?

students at the Air Force's war college

Of course. You could never pull this much wool over the eyes of intelligent well-informed people.

It's too bad there are so few of them in America these days.

Americans Must Not Believe The Terrorist Threat Will Go Away

Contending there are those who say terrorism is "somebody else's problem, or it will go away," Rumsfeld countered that United States has no choice but to go on the offensive.

I don't know anyone who thinks that terrorism is "somebody else's problem". Do you?

Listen, folks: Terrorism is not to go away anytime soon -- especially if the Pentagon's special pro-terrorism group keeps stirring it up. This pro-terrorism arm of the Pentagon -- which they call P2OG -- was planned years ago and has been operational since last spring at the very least. And it doesn't look like it's going away.

The death squads roaming Iraq are not going to go away anytime soon either -- the Pentagon and the White House will certainly see to that. These people don't like to "cut and run", as we all know. And they've invested far too much in creating a civil war in Iraq to stop now.

They've caused the deaths of more than six hundred thousand people -- with millions more to come -- all based on the lies that they won't stop telling, even after the lies have been proven false.

And in my book, that's as offensive as it gets.

Americans Must Take A Lesson From History

"With this sort of enemy, we cannot afford — and indeed could not survive — another holiday from history," Rumsfeld said.

Well then let's talk about some history.

Rumsfeld's speech echoed statements he made in August, when he warned an American Legion convention that the U.S. must not repeat the World War II-era mistake of trying to appease the enemy, even as fascism took hold.

The enemies who threaten us -- the monsters who have attacked us many times in many different ways and who continue to attack us every single day -- are fascist but they are not Islamic.

They have hit us with false terror and they have bombed our legal system back to the stone age. And that's just the beginning of a long list.

Meanwhile, appeasement has been going on for years. Democratic politicians have been appeasers of the second-worst sort -- second only to the Republicans ... well, third if you happen to count the media.

On behalf of all humanity, let us call for the end of appeasement.

On behalf of all humanity, let us band together and stop this vicious Orwellian monster which threatens us all.

On behalf of all humanity, let us take a lesson from history: The last time a militarized industrialized nation invested this much power in a leader this sick, it cost humanity 80 million lives to get it stopped. And Hitler didn't even have nuclear weapons.

Clearly, the time to stop the appeasement is long past.