Rumsfeld's gone from Andrew Sullivan's blog

Rumsfeld Shrugs
08 Nov 2006 06:35 pm

This was the final insult - to you and to me:

In brief remarks, Rumsfeld described the Iraq conflict as a "little understood, unfamiliar war" that is "complex for people to comprehend."

He then compared himself to Churchill. Yep: still clinical.

The truth is: it was Rumsfeld who little understood and was unfamiliar with the actual conflict he was tasked with managing.

It was not too "complex for people to comprehend."
It was relatively easy to comprehend.
If you invade a post-totalitarian country and disband its military, you better have enough troops to keep order. We didn't.
Rumsfeld refused to send enough.
When this was made clear to him and to everyone, he still refused. His arrogant belief in a military that didn't need any actual soldiers was completely at odds with the actual task in Iraq. But he preferred to sit back as tens of thousands of Iraqis were murdered and thousands of U.S. troops died rather than to check his own ego.

So let me put this as simply as I can:
Rumsfeld has blood on his hands - American and Iraqi blood. He also directly ordered and personally monitored the torture of military detainees. He secured legal impunity for his own war crimes, but that doesn't mean the Congress shouldn't investigate more fully what he authorized.
He remains one of the most incompetent defense secretaries in history (McNamara looks good in comparison).
But he is also a war criminal: a torturer who broke the laws of this country. The catastrophe in Iraq will stain him for ever.
His record of torture has indelibly stained the United States.