Rumsfeld: My Worst Day was Abu Ghraib (Which he was Responsible For). What About the Rest of the War? (That was his Fault, Too)

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

In the waning hours of his term as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld still doesn't get it. Disgraced in failure and fired by George W. Bush, Rumsfeld spoke about his experiences during a farewell talk today at the Pentagon. (seriously, how bad do you have to be for Bush to boot you for incompetence?)

Rumsfeld warned of "dire consequences were we to fail" in Iraq. Apparently, he is oblivious to the fact that we have already failed, and that there are already dire consequences now, with more assured for the future regardless of what we do.

Most interesting from his talk was Rumsfeld's response when asked about his best day and his worst day in office. "Clearly, the worst day was Abu Ghraib, seeing what went on there and feeling so deeply sorry that that happened," he replied. The first question is whether Rummy means when he found out about it, or when he realized everyone else found out about it. After all, Rumsfeld ordered, allowed, or ignored the very "interrogation" techniques that made Abu Ghraib a scandal.

We know that Rumsfeld allegedly offered Bush his resignation following the revelations of prisoner abuse, but this by no means excuses the Secretary. If he were really so outraged about what happened or disappointed with his own performance, Rumsfeld would have insisted on resigning or at least tried to be more convincing. Bush could not have forcibly kept Rummy in the Pentagon for these last few years against his wishes, and it would certainly have been understandable for Rumsfeld to refuse to work anymore considering what he did.

While Abu Ghraib is pretty high on the list of tragedies in Iraq, what about the invasion of Iraq itself? Rumsfeld was one of the officials leading the charge to war, convinced that we would - in perhaps a few weeks at the most - be greeted as liberators, find the WMDs, oust Saddam, and then implement a thriving democracy (which would subsequently spread throughout the region). Either Rumsfeld has yet to wake up from this illusion to face reality, or he, at some point, realized how terribly, terribly wrong he was.

Abu Ghraib certainly marked a turning point in our failure to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis, but surely the realization that you were a chief architect of one of the greatest debacles in American history would be enough to more than just ruin your day.

When Rumsfeld was asked how he wants history to remember him, he replied, "better than the local press." Don't count on it, Rummy. At least a few people still believe he isn't a total failure right now, but the longer Iraq plays out and the more historians are able to fully evaluate what happened, the worse he is going to look. As Condi Rice noted, "I know we've made tactical errors, thousands of them, I'm sure. There are going to be dissertations written about the mistakes of the Bush Administration."

Rumsfeld said his best day will be "a week from Monday," when his successor, Robert Gates, takes over. Finally, there is something we can all agree on.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS