Button Pusher

The story reveals the intensity of Rumsfeld propaganda efforts to increase public interest in war with Iran, and to keep a fear level ratcheted up in the American public.

From the Desk of Donald Rumsfeld . . .

Under siege in April 2006, when a series of retired generals denounced him and called for his resignation in newspaper op-ed pieces, Rumsfeld produced a memo after a conference call with military analysts. "Talk about Somalia, the Philippines, etc. Make the American people realize they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists," he wrote.

In one of his longer ruminations, in May 2004, Rumsfeld considered whether to redefine the terrorism fight as a "worldwide insurgency." The goal of the enemy, he wrote, is to "end the state system, using terrorism, to drive the non-radicals from the world." He then advised aides "to test what the results could be" if the war on terrorism were renamed.

One wonders what is ticking in this man's grey matter. Would you call it lucid paranoia? Steady paranoia?