You Sank the Ship, and the Lifeboat Leaks

These dwindling days of the worst administration ever to take over this country are producing a spectacle that is in some ways enjoyable. Stanford's Hoover chair is being proposed for Donald Rumsfeld, and the outcry of respectable Stanford profs, students and alums is loud and clear. Like the DFHs at SMU who do not wish to be associated with war criminals, 2600 at Stanford have signed a petition to refuse the chair to Rumsfeld. His post would put him with George Schultz on an advisory taskforce on ideology and terrorism. His history certainly does include both.

Yesterday a panel of media met to discuss the treatment of the war by their profession, and generally agreed that Rumsfeld was constantly on the attack against media, and of course, the truth.

ABC News National Security correspondent Jonathan Karl and NBC News Chief Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski noted that civilians at the very top echelon of the Defense Department set an adverserial tone from the beginning.

Karl noted former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's signature style in press conferences of not only refusing to answer questions but attacking their premise and often "demeaning" the questioner.

Under Rumsfeld, the influential Early Bird--a long-standing daily compendium of defense coverage assembled by the Pentagon's public affairs office and distributed to civilian employees and military officers around the world--was altered to reflect that adversarial relationship, Karl said.

Instead of leading the lengthy daily news digest with the most important defense-related news stories of the day--as was traditional--the document was re-formatted to lead with printed correction notices from newspapers on defense-related news coverage--even as picayune "as a misspelled name," Karl noted. The corrections were followed by letters to the editor written by defense officials, even if unpublished.

Finally, after that, came the news stories of the day. What kind of message does that send?

Since Defense Secretary Robert Gates has taken over at the Pentagon, the digest has returned to its traditional format, Karl said.

The defense of the indefensible is a talent the members of the present executive branch are trying to develop. Thus far, they have succeeded in convincing some of the media but a very small proportion of the public. Trying to buy themselves a ticket to secure perches in academia is not going over very well.

When the rats leave the ship of state they sunk, the water below that they bloodied seems to be full of hungry carnivores.

If my alma mater invited one of the war criminals to take shelter in its halls, I would be as furious as the 2600 Standord associates are, and as the SMU student, faculty and alums are (yes, tena, I know you are) and I would be writing the letters and signing the petitions too. In fact, I did sign a petition put up by representatives of the Methodist Church who want SMU to be clear of war criminals.

Nuremberg is a better place for the group that has brought the U.S. to its present low state, and supports torture, killing, 'shock and awe' over diplomacy.