Rumsfeld Redeploys to Right-Wing Think Tank

Saturday, 15 September 2007, 3:59 pm
Column: Bill Berkowitz

Rumsfeld Redeploys to Right-Wing Think Tank

By Bill Berkowitz

OAKLAND, California, Sep 13 (IPS) - While General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker were giving the U.S. Congress an upbeat assessment of the situation on the ground in Iraq this week, one of the chief architects of the war was preparing to redeploy to a West Coast conservative think tank.

Once he was the "it" guy; everything he said was treated as the gospel truth. He took on celebrity-like status: The Wall Street Journal's editorial board member, Claudia Rosett, described his press briefings on the war in Afghanistan as "the best new show on television." CNN called him a "virtual rock star" and the Fox News Channel described him as "a babe magnet for the 70-year old set". President George W. Bush dubbed him a "matinee idol". His star turn reached its zenith during the period he guided the U.S. military to a triumph over the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Although he once declared that he didn't "do quagmires", the quagmire that became Iraq was his ultimate undoing. And it was the Republican Party's crushing electoral defeat in November 2006 that sealed his fate.

Now, he's heading down the familiar path well trod before him by other Bush officials, aides and advisors, defeated Republican candidates, and retired military officers; he's headed for a secure and well-funded post at a major right wing think tank.

In early September, Stanford University's Hoover Institution announced that former Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld would become a visiting fellow at the Institution.

According to a statement issued on Sep. 7 by Hoover's director John Raisan, Rumsfeld will participate in the institution's new task force of scholars and experts studying post-Sep. 11 ideology and terror.

"I have asked Don to join the distinguished group of scholars that will pursue new insights on the direction of thinking that the United States might consider going forward," Raisian said...

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