In his Impromptus column today, Jay Nordlinger reports many noteworthy remarks from Donald Rumsfeld. It's wonderful stuff, and I think this is my favorite part:
"Or take the coalition in Iraq. It now includes military forces from 32 nations. Consider some of the countries that are contributing troops in Iraq today: Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. They all have forces in Iraq assisting the coalition. There are others, as well, but I just mention these because those are the nations helping in Iraq today that President Reagan helped to make free."And, "Why are so many of these nations, many small, most not very wealthy, sending their forces . . . halfway around the world, to help bring freedom to the Iraqi people? I suspect it's because so many of them have just recovered their own freedom, and they're eager, they're proud to help the Iraqi people recover theirs. God bless them all, and God bless Ronald Reagan for what he did to help liberate them."
Nordlinger also has an excellent, longer piece on his interview with Mr. and Mrs. Rumsfeld in the forthcoming NRODT. A couple choice excerpts (I'm liking NRO Digital, the latest edition of which also has a new column by Mark Steyn!):
I ask whether Rumsfeld reads Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist who regularly makes sport of him. He allows that he reads the headline and the first paragraph or two. Then, having gotten the drift, he quits. “Do you know her?” he asks me. “No,” I say, “but you’ve been good for her career.” He responds: “I’m not so sure about that — that this has been good for her career.” A highly interesting point, which there is too little time to pursue.
and
A final question concerning the War on Terror: Will Americans stick with it, or will they get worn down? “They stuck with the Cold War,” Rumsfeld quickly notes. “And I think Americans have a good sense of what’s important. I have a lot of confidence in people.”
(I almost always read Nordlinger's columns, but hadn't read this one when I saw it mentioned by Zombyboy.)
Posted by oscarjr at October 23, 2003 10:31 PM | TrackBack