Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld holds a unique place in the nation's history. He is the only person to have served two times as defense secretary. He was the youngest to hold that position when he served President Gerald R. Ford, and he was the oldest to have the job when he filled the post for President George W. Bush. One would hope, then, that Rumsfeld's memoir of his time in Washington would be illuminating and informative. It is not. It is, instead, a mean-spirited, finger-pointing volume that is so self-serving that its value as a historic document is questionable.
Rumsfeld, to be blunt, does not accept blame easily. Indeed, a great deal of his newly published "Known and Unknown: A Memoir" is spent settling scores, blaming others and questioning decisions made by others. The heart of the 815-page book is a spirited defense of Rumsfeld's role in leading the nation into an Iraq war that ultimately cost more than 4,000 American lives, untold thousands of Iraqi lives and at least $700 billion. The former secretary, if he is to be taken at his word, is pretty much blameless. That's a minority view.
Rumsfeld, in truth, was at the center of the White House advisers and others who led the United States into war. He was a major player in the campaign to convince Americans that war with Iraq was necessary because Saddam Hussein had and was willing to use weapons of mass destruction and because Iraq was inextricably linked to the 9/11 attacks. Subsequent events and accumulating evidence indicate that neither the WMD charge nor the terrorists connection was true. The truth, however, doesn't seem to appeal to Rumsfeld, the memoirist.
The former secretary is now on tour promoting his book. He does, however, parse words carefully when answering questions about the run-up to the war or about his decision to limit the men and materiel sent to Iraq at the beginning of the war. Yes, he sometimes will admit, there were mistakes made in those days, but then he quickly adds that those errors were committed by others. He's happy to name names, too.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who later became secretary of state, receive the lion's share of Rumsfeld's criticism, but they have plenty of company. Former CIA Director George Tenet, Gen. Tommy Franks and even President Bush are targets, too. There's hardly a soul, it seems, who crossed paths with Rumsfeld at that critical juncture in U.S. history who is blameless.
Rumsfeld, of course, can write or say whatever he pleases. It is, after all, his book. Most Americans would welcome an authoritative and well-documented account of what took place at the White House and the Pentagon after the 9/11 attack and before the Iraq war. They'll have to wait for such a book to reach store shelves or Kindle download. Rumsfeld's account, despite his claims to the contrary, is more an ego trip than a useful view of history.