UPDATE: Crooks and Liars has the video of Rumsfeld admitting that we're meeting with the insurgency. That was before he denied it today.
Anyone in the media or the Republican Party still wondering why Americans have lost total confidence in Bush's ability to lead our country in a time of war? The incompetence of his top advisers is one place where to start.
Rumsfeld went on the Sunday talk shows where he repeatedly and explicity confirmed over several shows and several hours a British newspaper report that the US military had been meeting with insurgents. In fact, he went FARTHER than the report and blithely claimed that these meetings had been going on all the time.
He blithely insisted that "none" of the insurgents we were negotiating with were terrorists, when Tim Russert pressed him about this on "Meet The Press." I was just about to post on this issue, wondering exactly which part of the insurgency WASN'T involved in terrorism or direct attacks on US troops, since that is their entire strategy. Did they say they weren't when he asked? And if they did, how could Rummy possibly check it out? And if it didn't check out, by what possible standards could they be considered insurgents? In short, Rummy confirmed repeatedly on Sunday that we were negotiating with terrorists or he simply was completely incompetent and had no idea what he was talking about.
Today, Rummy has seized on the "I'm a complete idiot" argument. Reuters and AFP are reporting that top military leaders in Iraq have insisted absolutely NO talks have been started or contemplated between the US military and the insurgents.
Rumsfeld chastised the news media for the attention given to the subject.
"I must say, I've been impressed how overblown these meetings are, these, quote-unquote, meetings. I don't know anything about specific meetings on specific days, nor does General Casey," Rumsfeld said.
"But there are meetings going on all the time between people in Iraq and other people in Iraq, attempting to get them to be supportive of the government, which is, obviously, the logical thing one does in a political process," Rumsfeld said.
So Rummy has completely contradicted himself and proven he doesn't have a clue as to what is going on in Iraq. No biggie for a Sec. of Defense who in those same interviews agreed the insurgency was in its last throes AND that it could continue for the next decade, if not longer.
When Bush, Cheney and Rummy repeatedly stare facts in the face and refuse to admit to them, they unnerve the American people and lose our confidence in their ability to even recognize a problem, much less respond to it and solve it. That is why the American people have lost faith in George Bush.
(Thanks to threader Mike V. for pointing us to this story.)
