NOBODY does dismissive better than Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. When confronted with an uncomfortable truth, he has a way of brushing it off with a brusque one liner.
"Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war,'' was one of his classics.
A war gone awry has a way of encouraging a depressing view of its leadership. Rumsfeld cannot so easily dismiss the rising chorus of condemnation from retired generals who have called for his resignation. As Army Maj. Gen. John Riggs told National Public Radio last week, Rumsfeld has fostered an "atmosphere of arrogance" at the Pentagon.
The nation has paid a heavy price for Rumsfeld's arrogance, including strategic miscalculations that have contributed to the quagmire in Iraq, even if the defense secretary won't acknowledge the word. "I don't do quagmires," he once said.
The commanders in the battlefield don't have a choice. They do what they are ordered to do -- at least until they are retired. Now liberated from the chain of command, some of them are providing damning testimony to their lack of confidence in Rumsfeld's leadership.
On Friday, President Bush expressed "full support and deepest appreciation" for his embattled defense secretary. It seems that the stubbornness and obliviousness in this administration goes all the way to the top.
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In passing:
**Attila the Hun (406–453)** was the final and most powerful king of the Huns. He reigned over what was then Europe's largest empire, from 434 until his death. His empire stretched from Central Europe to the Black Sea and from the Danube River to the Baltic. During his rule he was among the direst enemies of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires: he invaded the Balkans twice and encircled Constantinople in the second invasion. He marched through Gaul (later France) as far as Orleans before being turned back at Chalons; and he drove the western emperor Valentinian III from his capital at Ravenna in 452.
Though his empire died with him and he left no remarkable legacy, he has become a legendary figure in the history of Europe. In much of Western Europe, he is remembered as the epitome of cruelty and rapacity. Few (like GW Bush jr.)...do praise him too. Afterall, In India, Mahatma's Gandhi's killer is praised by many and so is Hitler.
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