THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH WHAT RUMSFELD SAID.
As a consevative I know that my beliefs are under a much higher level of scrutiny than conventional wisdom. We conservatives must always offer a much higher standard of proof in order not to be dismissed entirely. Therefore, I continually investigate any claims that conservative beliefs have been proven to be incorrect. That's why I clicked on this
thread when I saw it.
Saying "more immediate threat" has a different meaning than "immediate threat" without the qualifying "more." Although this may sound like arguing about what the meaning of the
word "is" is (which many of you don't have a problem with), it really isn't.
Take the phrase "immediate need," for example. If some people suddenly found themselves shipwrecked on an island, their needs would be food,
water, and
shelter. However, as long as the weather was nice, their "most immediate need" would be water, and one of them could say this even if none of them were thirsty at the time. On the other hand, if they were dying of thirst, then water would become an "immediate need" without the "more."
Yes, Rumsfeld was squirming, but not because he was caught in a lie. The administration HAS been embarrassed by faulty intelligence (at least that is APPARENTLY the case. It took us a lot longer than one would have expected to find Saddam. During the months we couldn't find HIM, no one was stupid enough to suggest that that meant he never existed). But people have to realize that intelligence gathering cannot be an exact science. We had intelligence that said that Hitler was working hard to produce an atomic weapon, and after the war that turned out not to be true. So were the people who produced the intelligence reports about Hitler "liars?"
What we DO know is that Saddam was killing his own people off by the thousands while TRYING to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Now we've closed the mass graves, shut down the torture chambers, and put a stop to his efforts that might have eventually succeeded. Now Saddam will have no more terrorist training camps and will no longer give money to the families of suicide bombers.
That some people find this to be a bad thing alternately saddens, angers, and scares me.