{"id":1930,"date":"2003-11-09T05:11:24","date_gmt":"2003-11-09T21:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/11\/09\/taking-cues-from-reagan\/"},"modified":"2019-12-06T10:35:25","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T18:35:25","slug":"taking-cues-from-reagan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/11\/09\/taking-cues-from-reagan\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking cues from Reagan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:12860,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.starbanner.com\\\/apps\\\/pbcs.dll\\\/article?AID=\\\/20031109\\\/NEWS\\\/211090375\\\/1003&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:12861,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/newshour\\\/bb\\\/middle_east\\\/jan-june03\\\/rumsfeld_2-20.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20140115174136\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/newshour\\\/bb\\\/middle_east\\\/jan-june03\\\/rumsfeld_2-20.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 03:28:16&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 03:28:16&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:12862,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.defenselink.mil\\\/news\\\/Feb2003\\\/t02212003_t0220sdlehrer.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:12863,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/macartisan.typepad.com\\\/cupertino\\\/2003\\\/11\\\/rummie_trys_the.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Much as I may dislike Rumsfeld (along with the rest of the Bush administration), I always figured he at least had some amount of intelligence. But this latest <a href=\"http:\/\/www.starbanner.com\/apps\/pbcs.dll\/article?AID=\/20031109\/NEWS\/211090375\/1003\" title=\"Rumsfeld retreats, disclaims earlier rhetoric\">&#8220;I didn&#8217;t say that&#8221; spiel<\/a> is nothing short of ludicrous&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  &#8230;on Feb.\u00a020, a month before the invasion, Rumsfeld fielded a question about whether Americans would be greeted as liberators if they invaded Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?&#8221; Jim Lehrer asked the defense secretary on PBS&#8217; &#8220;The News Hour.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;There is no question but that they would be welcomed,&#8221; Rumsfeld replied, referring to American forces. &#8220;Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda would not let them do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  &#91;&#8230;&#93;<\/p>\n<p>  But on Sept.\u00a025, &#8211; a particularly bloody day in which one U.S. soldier was killed in an ambush, eight Iraqi civilians died in a mortar strike and a member of the U.S-appointed governing council died after an assassination attempt five days earlier &#8211; Rumsfeld was asked about the surging resistance.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;Before the war in Iraq, you stated the case very eloquently and you said . . . they would welcome us with open arms,&#8221; Sinclair Broadcasting anchor Morris Jones said to Rumsfeld as the prelude to a question.<\/p>\n<p>  The defense chief quickly cut him off. &#8220;Never said that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Never did. You may remember it well, but you&#8217;re thinking of somebody else. You can&#8217;t find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said.&#8221;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Does Rummy really think he&#8217;ll be able to get away with claiming that he didn&#8217;t say these things? In today&#8217;s &#8216;net connected world, anything said on the public record is there for good once it propagates into news stories posted across the &#8216;net.<\/p>\n<p>If Rummy&#8217;s memory is really that bad, perhaps Google could help him refresh it with results like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/bb\/middle_east\/jan-june03\/rumsfeld_2-20.html\" title=\"Prepared for War - February 20, 2003\">this PBS transcript of the interview with Jim Lehrer<\/a> that the quote comes from. Or this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.defenselink.mil\/news\/Feb2003\/t02212003_t0220sdlehrer.html\" title=\"Secretary Rumsfeld Interview with NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, WETA TV\">Department of Defense transcript<\/a> of the same interview.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s try that &#8220;You can&#8217;t find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said,&#8221; statement again, shall we?<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"http:\/\/macartisan.typepad.com\/cupertino\/2003\/11\/rummie_trys_the.html\" title=\"Rummie Trys the Alzheimer Defense\">Will<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much as I may dislike Rumsfeld (along with the rest of the Bush administration), I always figured he at least had some amount of intelligence. But this latest &#8216;I didn&#8217;t say that&#8217; spiel is nothing short of ludicrous&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2042],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-1930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}