Robert Sterling
Beast of the Month - April 2003
Fri May 9 22:22:01 2003
208.152.73.160

http://www.konformist.com/botm/volume06/botm0403.htm

Beast of the Month - April 2003
Donald "Redrum" Rumsfeld, Overtly Psychopathic Defense Secretary

"I yam an anti-Christ..."
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"

"Kill."
Redrum Rumsfeld, using his favorite word in numerous speeches.


It's official: Gulf War II has started. And as any film buff will
tell you, sequels are almost always worse than the original.

In defiance of both world and US opinion, the US began an unprovoked
and unilateral war against Iraq last month, the culmination of an
arrogant and contemptuous foreign policy. This followed a massive
failure in the UN Security Council to get approval for even the most
miniscule sanction for the war. In face of this failure, right-wing
forces tried to pin the blame of this failure on those dastardly
French and their threat of Security Council veto. The scapegoating
of the quiche-eating French (who, despite their general snooty
behavior, their bizarre fixation on Jerry Lewis, and their greater
resistance to Mickey Mouse than Hitler, are right for once) ignores
the fact that Russia had also threatened to veto, that China had
remained firmly at best an abstaining vote, and that there was no
chance in hell of getting the necessary votes for approval, even with
the massive enticement of bribes and blackmail. (The UK Observer
uncovered that the NSA was spying on Security Council diplomats
during the time leading up to a potential vote.) To label the UN
debacle a failure of diplomacy would be charitable: after all, to
call the ham-fisted attempts to pressure the rest of the world into
approving the Iraq invasion as "diplomacy" is a betrayal of the term.

Still, to focus on the failures of diplomacy by the Shrub Team would
be focusing on the freedom fries rather than the Big Mac at the
center of the plate. After all, Colin Powell (who, for all his
faults, is the solitary figure in the Dubya regime to show any remote
sense of decency since the presidential theft) is not the man who has
earned the wrath of the world. It is instead our $400 billion a year
Pentagon that has both offended and frightened them. Indeed, France,
Germany and Russia (three countries whose own sordid history of
colonialism is hardly a virtuous record even compared to the US and
UK) seem less concerned with the potential plight of the Iraqi people
than with the increasing threat of Team USA, running amok and power
drunk in glory, harming their own national interests. And with all
due respect for the smirking chimp-in-thief, it is Donald "Redrum"
Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense and The Konformist Beast of the
Month, who is the best representative of their logical fears.

Two things should be quickly evident from any viewing of Redrum Rummy
in one of his press conferences: one, that, like John Ashcroft, this
is a man seriously in a need of a enema, and two, that, like Shrub,
the man is an overt psychopath. Indeed, what makes Rumsfeld stand
out in comparison to other heads of the DOD is the disturbing glee he
enjoys pointing out the purpose of his office is to murder people.
In one press briefing during the Afghanistan operation, he used the
word "kill" nine times.

On one hand, there is something admirable about a guy who states
without euphemism that his purpose is to be a ruthless killer. It is
because of this unusually blunt style that Redrum has earned admirers
even among political opponents, and a bizarre cult of personality has
developed around him. (So much so that People Magazine made him one
of the ten runner-ups - along with Simon Cowell - to Mr. Jennifer
Lopez as the Sexiest Man Alive.)

His style has given him some cultural comparisons - most notably to
General Jack D. Ripper of Dr. Strangelove and Darth Vader of the Star
Wars Trilogy. Yet, while Ripper and Vader seem to have some truth to
it, a better comparison would be to Hannibal Lecter. Lecter, like
Rumsfeld, is a very intelligent and charismatic psychopath, who seems
like the perfect dinner guest - provided, that is, he doesn't attack
and eat his dining companions. As portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in an
Oscar-winning turn in Silence of the Lambs (as well as two sequels)
it is little surprise that Lecter, like Rumsfeld, has developed a
devoted following of admirers.

Of course, there are a couple major differences between Lecter and
Rumsfeld, besides the obvious one that Lecter is a man of very
refined tastes:

A) Hannibal Lecter, unlike Redrum, is a fictional character; and:

B) Hannibal Lecter, unlike Redrum, isn't the Secretary of Defense.

But all this is merely an aside: what is notable about Rummy's overt
psychopathic behavior is that, unlike Dubya, Redrum is no idiot.
When Shrub shows it in full force (for example, when he mocked the
execution of Karla Faye Tucker) it can merely be explained as a dim
bulb too unaware that his twisted behavior is completely
inappropriate. When someone as intelligent as Rumsfeld brashly
gloats about death, it must be assumed to be a calculated decision.
It is very telling then, that Rumsfeld calculated the public would
reward him for an open display of pathological behavior, and even
more telling that, to his credit, he was clearly right.

More to his credit, Redrum can claim something few of the hawks on
the right can: actual service in the US military. True, he never
actually faced combat, but that was due to the fortune of serving as
a Naval aviator in the years between Korea and Vietnam. Less can be
said of the following pro-war Republicans: Shrub (who evaded Vietnam
thanks to a fortunate opening in the National Guard, from which he
quickly became AWOL without punishment), Donkey Dick (who, on the
issue of Nam, said that he "had other priorities"), John Ashcroft,
Trent Lott, Dan Quayle (who, like Shrub, got a lucky slot in the
National Guard while his father was a resolutely pro-war Republican),
Mr. Moral Virtue William Bennett, Pat Robertson, Tom DeLay, Saxby
Chambliss (who got out of Vietnam with supposed bad knees, then
attacked - in a successful Georgia Senate campaign this November -
his incumbent opponent Max Cleland, a war hero who lost three limbs
in a grenade explosion, on his supposed lack of patriotism) and Rush
Limbaugh (who, most amusingly, received a medical deferment due
to "anal cysts.") Indeed, the fact that the vast majority of
supposedly patriotic pro-war right-wing Republicans ducked their
opportunity to sacrifice their lives for their country has earned the
entire class of armchair warriors the dubious nickname
of "Chickenhawks" for their noted bravery.

(And it is interesting to note that the solitary veteran of war in
the Shrub echelon is Powell, which probably explains why he is so
ambivalent about war. After all, Powell, unlike the rest, knows the
tragedy of seeing your friends die in battle and the misery which war
causes firsthand.)

Chickenhawk he may be not, but a curious career he has had
nonetheless. A key Nixon and Ford appointee, he served a term as
Defense Secretary for fourteen months before Jimmy Carter took
office. Then, in 1977, he became president and CEO of G. D. Searle
for eight years, the pharmaceutical giant that later was swallowed up
by the Monsanto empire. (One wonders what a chemical manufacturer
would see in the benefits of hiring a former Defense Secretary to
head their firm.) The most noted achievement of his reign at Searle
was the successful push and approval for Aspartame, the toxic sugar
substitute (it was originally classified as a biochemical warfare
weapon by the Pentagon) whose critics rightfully call "Nutrapoison"
for its negative effects. His other noted accomplishment during the
Searle years: between November 1983 and May 1984, he was Ronald
Reagan's special ambassador to the Middle East. During that period,
Rummy personally met with Saddam Hussein, and was instrumental in the
return of diplomatic relations between Iraq and the US. He did this
while evidence was presented both in the UN and mainstream news
sources that Iraq had used chemical weapons in its war with Iran (no
word if Nutrasweet was among the weapons used.) Despite this
unseemly fact, it didn't stop Redrum - or the entire Reagan-Bush
team - from becoming friendly and supportive to a ruthless
dictatorship it would only drop when it became expendable.

(Incredibly, Rummy and his cohorts now dare accuse people who oppose
the attack on the Iraqi people, whose subjugation was promoted by the
Reagan-Bush squad, as "lacking patriotism.")

After his years as the head of a chemical manufacturer, Rumsfeld
became a regular shill for various korporations, but he mainly ducked
the limelight like a vampire, aside from a 1998 open letter to
Klinton he co-signed urging Slick Willie to "provide the leadership
necessary to save ourselves and the world from the scourge of Saddam
and the weapons of mass destruction that he refuses to relinquish,"
something which he and the Reagan-Bush Team specifically didn't do.
Then, in September 2000, The Project for the New American Century
published a manifesto, titled Rebuilding America's Defenses. Among
the key pieces of the PNAC platform:

* Massive increases in defense spending, of at least $48 billion a
year.

* Prolific increases in expensive weapon systems, including Star Wars
and "bunker-buster" nuclear weapons.

* Rejection of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.

* North Korea, Iran, Iraq (the future "Axis of Evil") were all
specifically named as the top three threats to the US.

* On the plans of attacking Iraq, stated, "the need for a substantial
American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the
regime of Saddam Hussein


The founders of the PNAC include Donkey Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz,
Rummy's Deputy Defense Secretary, Richard Perle, a major Shrub
military advisor, I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, William
Bennett (who took time off from his Virtue sermonizing to right a
book titled "Why We Fight" after 9-11 - amusing, since in Vietnam,
that's precisely what he didn't do) and Zalmay Khalilzad, the current
US Ambassador to Afghanistan. And, of course, Rummy.

Perhaps the most telling statement in the whole bold manifesto was
that, in order to achieve their stated goals, "the process of
transformation is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic
and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor." Before 9-11, their
entire agenda was not even in the ballpark of debate: now, it is
conventional policy. In other words, thanks to what at best could be
interpreted as the worst breakdown of intelligence and military
defense in US history (one they publicly stated would be needed for
their agenda), the entire team behind the breakdown was rewarded with
their entire wish list as punishment. Which leads to the question:
was it another Pearl Harbor, or another Reichstag?

Reichstag or no, the overtly militaristic agenda of the Redrum
Pentagon is highly evident. Wolfowitz and Perle are two leading
thinkers of the neo-con agenda, a hawkish group of primarily American
Jews who desire a greater presence in the Middle East that would
coincidentally help Israel's interest. Not so surprisingly, both
Wolfowitz and Perle are Chickenhawks themselves.

So far, the war on Iraq hasn't gone as planned, and it has already
failed to live up to the hype of a quick and painless war. And even
if the war is eventually won (which presumes that neither Russia and
China intervene for geopolitical reasons, that the Arab world doesn't
unite against Great Satan, or that Saddam doesn't use any of those
chemical and biological warfare weapons we insist he still has on
American - oh, excuse me, "Coalition of the Willing" - troops) that
is only part one of the adventure. More troublesome will be an
occupation that would follow, an occupation that likely will mirror
the story behind Black Hawk Down. And all this despite a shock-and-
awe campaign that included massive destruction from what is referred
to as MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs) explosions.

Already the war has had a particularly disturbing image for families
with loved ones in the US military: images broadcast worldwide
(courtesy of Al Jazeera) of American POWs being interrogated and of
dead American soldiers, the victims captured and killed by Iraqi
forces.

When the images were broadcast, Redrum quickly had a hissy fit, and
whined that the images were a violation of the Geneva Convention.
For once, Rumsfeld wasn't lying: indeed, the images were, point
blank, a blatant violation. What was left unsaid by him was that the
violations paled in comparison to the absolute contempt to the Geneva
Convention showed by Rummy and forces under his command in
Afghanistan. 300 POWs were shown airlifted out of Kabul, chained and
with bags over their heads, a far greater visual humiliation than
what took place by the forces of Saddam. 400 to 800 POWs were
slaughtered in Mazar-i-Sharif in a gruesome display of callous mass
murder. (Close to one thousand other prisoners were reportedly
killed while cruelly being transported in air-tight containers.)
And, in perhaps the most twisted display of contempt for the Geneva
Convention, to date there are still numerous alleged Taliban and Al
Qaeda captives (the labels switch around whenever they become
convenient) held at Guantanamo, Cuba in Camp X-Ray, regularly dressed
up in kinky gear that would be more fitting for a gay-porn S&M
fantasy than a military camp. Besides the humiliation of being
photographed in the get-up (exactly what Redrum was bitching about in
the first place) they have been regularly beaten by teams of Army,
FBI and CIA agents, with the constant threat of being shipped to
countries with no silly laws prohibiting torture. All of which is
something that would be expected from, say, Hannibal Lecter.

How will this all end? Rummy, if nothing else, desires being a
winner, and no doubt he'll go to any cruel depth to achieve victory.
Indeed, we suspect that the depth of his Beasthood has only begun to
be hinted at.

In this case, however, Redrum and Shrub may win the battle but lose
the bigger fight. After all, even with the possible takeover of
Iraqi oil - whoops, we mean "the liberation of the Iraqi people" -
this still could trigger into something worse. By not working with
old allies like France and Germany or new ones like Russia, we have
effectively blown all the goodwill we'd earn in the international
community after another Pearl Harbor.

In the end, it should be no surprise that France, Germany and Russia
are wary of our increasingly hostile warmongering. They've all seen
it before, sixty years ago, when a guy named Hitler exploited tragedy
and wrapped himself up in patriotism to lead the world head-first
into a pit of bloodshed. That it is the forces under Dubya and
Redrum (and not Saddam Hussein) who seem most like The Third Reich is
pretty disturbing: the parallels between the pre-WWII years and now
suggest that WWIII could indeed result. And as we already pointed
out, sequels usually suck.

In any case, we salute Donald "Redrum" Rumsfeld as Beast of the
Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Donnie!!!

Sources:

Prisoners of Hypocrisy
Anthony Lappé, Guerrilla News Network ( http://www.gnn.tv  )
Alternet.org ( http://www.alternet.org  )
March 25, 2003

The Saddam in Rumsfeld's Closet
Jeremy Scahill, CommonDreams.org ( http://www.commondreams.org  )
August 2, 2002

Bay of Pigs Meets Black Hawk Down
Robert Parry, Consortiumnews.com ( http://www.consortiumnews.com  )
March 30, 2003

Various Articles, Dave McGowan
Davesweb ( http://cnchost.davesweb.com )

The Men Who Stole the Show
Tom Barry and Jim Lobe, FPIF.org ( http://www.fpif.org  )
October 20