Too Little, Too Late

Dec. 5, 2006 — -- If you look up "too little, too late" in the dictionary now, you will find Don Rumsfeld's Nov. 6 memo.

So, 3½ years into the war and two days before he got fired, the secretary of defense had a political deathbed conversion and thought it might be a good idea to change course in Iraq.

Is that supposed to impress me?

I'll tell you what this reminds me of as an old-school Steelers fan.

After Pittsburgh quarterback Neil O'Donnell threw three interceptions in the Super Bowl, he realized that it might have been a good idea to throw to his own team instead.

You don't say? There's some chance that the damage had been done.

I heard it suggested that perhaps we should give Don Rumsfeld another chance. If the Republicans like losing elections -- and wars -- they might want to give that a shot.

So, Don Rumsfeld suggests that perhaps we should redeploy troops to neighboring allies like Kuwait.

I liked that idea when I heard it from Jack Murtha about a year ago. If Republicans are enamored with that plan now, no problem. I'm pretty sure we could get Murtha confirmed pretty easily in the forthcoming Congress.

Here's how much credit Rumsfeld should get for finally considering alternatives to his horrendous plan nearly four years into a war we are badly losing: Absolutely none. Zero credit. Not even a scintilla.

Who expects credit for losing to Iraq and then realizing it four years too late? Are we having a serious discussion about this?

The man is the most incompetent, arrogant and ineffective secretary of defense this country has ever had. Why would any rational person give a damn what he thought?

There was a "Seinfeld" episode where George Costanza realized all of his instincts were dead wrong, and he decided that he should do the exact opposite of what his gut told him.

He wound up having great success with it. The only purpose Rumsfeld could serve now is if we used him as a Costanza bellwether. Whatever he says, do the opposite.

Don Rumsfeld told Gen.Tommy Franks that six months after the invasion we would only need 30,000 troops in Iraq.

Don Rumsfeld said the war "could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

Don Rumsfeld said he knew that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and he knew where they were:

Cenk Uygur is host of "The Young Turks" on Air America Radio.

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

Why did we ever listen to this guy?

Despite my better instincts, I studied the Rumsfeld memo to see what Costanza had to say.

His ideas broke down into two categories -- the obvious and the useless. The obvious are all things that the critics of the war have been saying for a long time: give the Iraqi government benchmarks, draw down troops so that we can make it clear to the government that we will not prop them up indefinitely, and, finally, redeploy troops out of the country to stay within striking distance but not be in the middle of a civil war.

These were all good suggestions when Don Rumsfeld and the administration were busy labeling them "cut and run."

The incompetence of this group is only matched by its audacity.

The rest of the 21 suggestions, such as putting more troops on the Syrian and Iranian border and starting an expansive employment program, would have been very useful three years ago.

Now they seem like a sick joke. With porous borders, clearly insufficient troops, and a bungled reconstruction effort, now Rumsfeld thinks we ought to do the things we should have planned for from the beginning.

This brings us back to where we started this war.

Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid told reporters after his retirement that Secretary Rumsfeld specifically forbid anyone in Central Command from carrying out postwar planning.

In fact, he said anyone who even talked about it would be fired!

Now, we are supposed to seriously consider the plans of a man who specifically ordered that there should be no planning?

So, appropriately, the only people even considering this memo are the same people who thought it was a good idea to hire Don Rumsfeld in the first place.

Several senior officials inside the White House, including Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, are saying that President Bush is very seriously contemplating the options laid out in the Don Rumsfeld memo.

Is anyone surprised anymore?

Cenk Uygur is host of "The Young Turks" on Air America Radio.