was I one of the architechs of the Iraq war disaster?…….You bet! Did I think I could accomplish the Iraq mission with just 30,000 troops…….golly yes! Did I overrule respected generals opinions on how to go about the Iraq invasion?…….heavens yes! Am I a seriously disturbed old man? possibly psychotic?………without a doubt!!!!

Rumsfeld did so much harm while he was in the White House that it will take years for many to understand the extent of the damage caused by his arrogance and closemindedness. I am glad he's gone. He, Chenney and Bush collectively have hurt the country and the Republican party enormously. I will not be voting Republican in the next presidential election and I am hearing from other Republicans that they will not either.

Holy crap Bill! please desist from voting anymore! With your reasoning ability you'd be better off cleaning the lint out of your naval on election day!

Hmmm Rummy didn't mention Richard Nixon. I wonder why…. Of course everyone was kind to Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The media maybe backed off of them because they felt there was nothing left on the carcass after the Republicans were through with them.

TO-Jeremy T, Australia

If we americans seem to have lost our pride, less patriotic and admired it is because of this president & his administration…if you like him so much please buy him a kangroo and beg him to come to Australia to live…

Rumsfeld is still the company man. If he doesn't build up his boss, what does that make him? But to put Bush in the same sentence as the others…well, just shows you how smart Rumsfeld himself is. And what does Ford's athletic ability have to do with anything? Sounds like Rummy spent a few years too many trying to make sense of Bush's orders….

Thank you to JeremyT in Australia. It's sad that only outside of America do we find the truth about our country. We have definitely gone soft. We have not the stomach for tough battles any longer. We're much more concerned about whether Steve and Bob may marry than whether we rid the world of terrorists who threaten our way of life. I for one would vote for President Bush again if I had the chance.

The fact is - President Bush is NOT smart. He failed at every business venture he embarked on…and he has failed as President. He has mis-managed this country, divided it and turned Americans against each other by questioning the patriotism of people who disagree with him. He has alienated needed allies across the globe. He is a divider, not a "decider".

Despite valiant (but failed) efforts of FOX news and other supporters to link him with Churchill and truly great leaders, it is quite clear to the American people, and to the world, that a smart man he is not. That is, if you are equating "smart" with "intelligence". As far as "dividing to conquer"..yes, he is "smart".

My favorite part!!! On the anniversary of 9/11, Britney Spears still makes the front page!! COME ON AMERICA!!! I'm with the guy from Australia….

Well said, mate. These folks don't realise what they have got in a leader compared to other nations around the world.

You Americans think so much about what the rest of the world's opinion of you is, only to lose sight of the fact that most of us follow your lead. It's been righteous for decades and I believe it still is.

I;m thinking the liberal folks are becoming sheepish!

Bush isn't being demeaned cause he is a republican. He is being demeaned because he is a Stumblebum.The man can barely carry on a coherent intelligent conversation.Every time he speaks in public he is an embarassment to the office he holds. He needs to look up some of the terms he uses because it is quite obvious,he does not converse intelligently,or even know what half the words used mean.That,my friends is true ignoprance!

Maybe I'm in the minority - I liked Rumsfeld and I appreciate what President Bush is doing. Rumsfeld worked hard for this country. You may not have liked his tactics and you may not have liked his politics, but the guy did a great job. As far as the President goes…of course he made mistakes, but he is STILL the president. All this bantering and whining about politics gets nothing done. Shut the political and bitter rhetoric and work on getting things done. That includes all of the armchair politicians in this country. If you really want to make a diff, run for an office. Whiners!

It is sad that an Australian can see far better than many "Americans" how things are. It is true that many of us Americans have becoming whiny little cowards who blame everyone but the guilty. Thank God there are a few of us who see the way things really our. (Including a friend in Australia.)

Jeremy! Nobody from Iraq has attacked our "soil"! The reasons for us attacking Iraq was completely misrepresented to everyone! If anyone spoke out against it at the beginning you were deemed unpatriotic and pretty much hung (metaphorically)! If you mean by blaming ourselves means the current administration, then YES! I blame them entirely. I have thought all along this was a war about cleaning up daddy Bush's mess. We should of been going after the true culprits of the attack, which isn't any 1 country, but a group of fundys! (And good luck on doing that!) And if you think GW is some great man, you truely are dillusional.

to spinstopper, that is a funny thing because this is the army bush inherited from bill clinton.

JeremyT–
What happened was Bush. He has destroyed us. We will rise again some day, but we are down now.

Many conservative Republicans who love to bash liberals and Democrats do so in the most ignorant ways. The bashing would be tolerable if it weren't for the utter ignorance from which it is derived. Let's have a brief history lesson:

Upon leaving office, President Eisenhower, a Republican, warned against what we have today: the military-industrial complex. The next president, John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, is responsible for implementing the largest post-WWII military buildup. The next president, Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, pulled us considerably deeper into Viet Nam than JFK ever did. When he realized he messed it all up, he did something honorable: he decided not to run for re-election. The next president, Richard Nixon, a Republican, is responsible for the "cut-and-run" strategy for Viet Nam. We can all thank him for getting the US out of that war even if we have nothing else to thank him for.

When the US fought the Gulf War, our whole country was rallied along with much of the rest of the world. It was a bipartisan effort, not a Republican effort. The same goes for the war in Yugoslavia and the war in Afghanistan.

In the Clinton years, the defense budget was gradually reduced, but by no means drastically. These reduced budgets were drafted and approved year after year by the Republican-dominated Congress. This was the reasonable thing to do, considering that the Cold War, having been waged since 1947, was finally at an end. It wouldn't be large armed forces, but rather more agile armed forces that would be needed to fight the next generation of wars. When Rumsfeld took office in 2001, he agreed with that assessment.

Now it may be difficult for some of you to whom this history lesson is directed, but try to connect the dots and realize you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about and that you'd make the world a better place by closing your mouth while opening your eyes and ears.

The facts are these:

1. While you accuse the liberals or Democrats of being the sole guilty party in drawing down the military, history shows you are wrong.

2. Even if the military were only a "shell" of what it was in the Reagan years, it would still be indisputably the largest and most powerful in the world.

3. The only president to execute the "awful" (gasp!) "cut-and-run" strategy was Nixon. In fact, he based his whole election campaign around it! On second thought, perhaps we could accuse Eisenhower of the "cut-and-run" strategy in dealing with the Korean War, right?

4. General George Patton said it best: Americans love to fight. For the most part, that's right. Americans love a good fight, and when the fight is a just one you'll have no trouble getting the vast majority of Americans rallied, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, conservatives or liberals. It has to be the right thing to do, though. Part of being an American is to fight for what is right, not to fight just for the sake of fighting.

Unfortunately for our entire country and for Iraq, Bush is continuing to have us fight in Iraq just for the sake of fighting. Most of the reasons that took us there and seemed to make the war a just one were lies and fabrications. This war is just like Viet Nam in the sense that we're still there only because we don't yet want to throw in the towel.

There are many characters of this Bush administration that are responsible for those lies and fabrications. They knew the war would be UNjust, yet they led us and our allies into it anyway. For their actions, they are the only ones who are decidedly UNAmerican. Those that oppose the war in Iraq after realizing it is unjust are the real American patriots, and their patriotism can be doubted no more than the members of the armed forces who continue to fight.

Thank you JeremyT, you are right. People wanted to have hell on earth for those who dared attack us, wanted to wipe them out of existence. At the time, people said Bush was the one to bring it. And now that it's here, they can't believe he's done it. Unfortunately, many or maybe even most, Americans are too easily influenced by television, and the Disney-fied version of revenge, where there isn't blood and death and orphans and disease. I have heard that Bush's verbal "fumbles" are an act, and I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Perhaps the lesson that Americans will take away from this is to be careful for what you ask for, because you might not be strong enough to handle it.

First of all, I'm confident that he probably cannot read or write.

Thanks, but we've already seen the Democratic campaign strategy several times; you don't need to remind us.

Good riddence - one can only hope that you are held accountable for your mistakes and lined up against the wall with the rest of your co-conspirators.

Nice to see that liberals are still against capital punishment.

Unless you disagree with them.

Now I'm no fan of the Bush clan, particularly our current DUMAS In Chief, but let's face the facts here. Old George must be pretty smart or the American people must be extremely dumb in order to elect this idiot AFTER he did such a horrible job during his first term. Then to let him do all of the things he has done with relative immunity…who is really dumb here. Maybe all of those who voted for this idiot are more stupid than even they realize.

General (President) Eisenhower would have fired "Rummy" and sent "Bushy" back to "Prep School" where he could intimidate his own kind instead of committing brave and courageous soldiers into combat, which he and the “Pork chop boy” VP avoided like the plague during Viet Nam. Because of his "youthful indiscretions", if he were not the son of a President/prominent family, he would still be in jail and never have been President and the country would have been much better off.

Right…I don't need the "eastern media" to tell me that Bush is an idiot; he shows me that every day by opening his mouth. Bush thinks he's going to "replenish the ol' coffers" when he's out of office on the lecture circuit, like President Clinton. He might be better served on the comedy circuit. I'd pay $10 to see him at the Laff Stop. He's a comedic genius! President? Not so much.

Jeremy from Australia could've made a very strong point had we gone to war with Pakistan, Afghanistan (two countries known to harbor the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks) or Saudi Arabia (the country most of the accused terrorists were from). Instead, we invaded a country that had nothing to do with the execution of the attack that took place on our soil, nor did it have WMDs. Every person who is outraged with our current administration for the deception and mishandling of the entire situation has just cause. Any one in their right mind can see that. It's too bad they'll all get away with it scott free. . . along with their Haliburton profits. Ech!

Grouping President Bush with the other Republican's he mentioned is an injustice, to the other Presidents.

I am a Democrat, and no fan of Republicans in general. However, President Bush is well on his way to becoming the worst and most infamous leader the Republic has ever had; he is not good enough to shine the shoes of the other Presidents mentioned.

Here is a news flash for former Secretary Rumsfeld, the country doesn't miss him any more than he misses President Bush.

Now be gone you wicked evil man, before someone drops a house on you!

Nothing like slanting the headlines. This is journalism? Just sick liberalism.

JeremyT, which part of Tex- I mean, Australia are you?

Oddly enough, the fifteen people I personally know living there all but laugh out loud whenever a discussion on current US government occurs.

When they are not angry for the example for their own president, whose nickname is, apparently, "Shrub".

As in, mini-bush.

Cheerio on the failed propaganda piece.

Let me help out some of these commenters with reading comprehension problems.

Rumsfeld's point in referencing past Republican presidents is how consistently they've been denigrated by the press while they were in office. That's why he mentions that Eisenhower was treated as a bumbler, that Ford was treated as clumsy and awkward, and that Reagan was treated as a dangerous imbecile in his own fantasy world. The point is not to equate Bush with any of them, but to suggest that those were false portraits of earlier presidents, and that perhaps Bush is also not being given enough credit.

Nixon didn't really fit the analogy, since he was attacked more as evil and corruption personified than as stupid.

Reagan is a great example of a president who was viciously attacked during the first six or so years of his presidency, until they realized the American people just weren't buying it. Then the attacks became less vicious, but more puzzled, as in, "Why aren't people listening more to us?"

Bush is by no means the communicator that Reagan was, so it may be a few years before the rhetoric cools down and he gets the credit he's due.

O.K. Name one, just one, positive thing that Bush has done since he took office!! You can't! The man has done absolutely nothing good for this country. Why do you defend him? Go ahead and list his accomplishments. He was going to be "The Uniter" — his own words and he has done nothing but divide this country. His is a flawed and failed presidency, a failed administration, an unnessary and failed war!

What Mr Rumsfield fails to realize that just by being a Republican makes them all stupid. Remember "If you've half a mind to vote Republican, don't worry that's all you need

Outstanding, Jeremy! Unfortunate that it takes an Aussie to provide a dose of reality to all of you self-loathing and hand-wringing Americans. All blame, no game!

Yeah, Bush's diary is going to be filled with pop-ups and crayons!! Give me a break! Anyways, who is listening to this guy anymore???

Its true ! It s true! Goerge Bush flew Air Force jets; his grades were higher than Sen John Kerry's at Yale. He's extremely intelligent, but like a lot of misunderstood people, doesn't flaunt it. And , all that is gold does not glitter. You don't have to use hundred dollar words to get your point across to the people.

If Rumsfeld has a point-and I truly believe that any person of average intelligence would agree that he doesn't-then only a deluded neocon or a complete idiot knows what it is.

JeremyT, we do and did support attacking anyone who attacked us. That's why we went into Afghanistan, and that's why that war was almost universally supported.

Then, Bush decided to attack a country that most of us knew (or would have known had he not been lying to us about it) had nothing at all to do with the attacks, and posed almost no threat to our nation. That's when everything sort of went off the rails, and we started on the path to where we are today.

JeremyT, AUSTRALIA

ahhhh I think you got that backwards haven't ya?

It's the Leaders that are lost and the Americans that are looking for one. Uhhhh A Good One that is. And as it stands, that's no small feat!

Rumsfeld is a straight shooting, terrorist fighting, America loving man. God Bless you Rummy… You are surely missed.

Haha it is no wonder the world is becoming so tired of Americans. What happened to you people? Your pride has gone out the window. You used to be the most patriotic bunch of people to walk the planet. You were admired for your zero tolerance policies towards hostile countries and extremist groups. But now you have all gone soft. You threatened to bring hell on earth to any country that attacked your soil, or threatened attack, but then you can't handle seeing your threats carried out on CNN. If that is not bad enough… Now you blame every little thing on yourselves and your President. Thank god Bush is a president who focusses on progress instead of popularity… because without a leader like that, i'm confident the majority of you would be lost.

What a story! Rumsfeld should write a book!

I just have to wonder, if he can compare Bush to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan what Great Statesman does he compare himself to! This man cracks me up! HAHAHA

I can see how George and Him were good buddies they both have the same problem. They're Delusional and on a Grandios Scale!!! Must be a great way to keep the stress level at a low ebb though eh? When things get tough you just imagine yourself to be a Great Man like Eisenhower, Ford or Reagan untill your delusional self actually believes your HE! HAHA Mind over Matter…I heard of that…but never in my wildest dreams imagined it worked that well! Amazing!

Best Laugh I've had all day….Thanks Rummy! I bet Rummy gets signed up for Comedy Hour!

Anyone want to bet me an American Loonie on that one? HA

Rummy makes it sound like Bush is unforgettable. "BINGO" - Rummy shoots and scores - to the consternation of the entire civilized (and uncivilized)world!

"Rumsfeld's legacy is the greatest military in history."

How could anyone say that? Rummy took the greatest military in history and drove it into the ground, where it still remains.

spinstopper, Rumsfeld did not create "The greatest military in history." He neutered it. His doctrine of "Transformation" and "Shock and Awe" crippled the US Army's ability to fight a counterinsurgency by dramatically cutting back on our Infantry, and we are still paying for his idiocy in Iraq today.

He does have a point…. Not that I expect liberals to ever realize it though.

"Rummy, you're doing a heck of a job." — President Bush

"Rummy, you're fired." — President Bush

Rumsfeld is right where he belongs - in the past.

The media doesn't need to demean Bush, he does it quite well by himself.

During the APEC summit in Australia, Bush appeared to have been acting in an SNL skit:

- Referred to Australia as Austria 3 times.
- Called the summit OPEC instead of APEC and further embarrassed himself by saying that maybe they would invite him to their next summit (Australia and the US are not members).
- Couldn't even find the exit off the stage.

Yeah, the guy is a genius and is undeservedly maligned by the evil liberal media!!

BTW, Rumsfeld sounds like a guy who has few friends.

Yeah, you were just misunderstood, and just didn't get credit where credit was due from that damnable 'liberal media'!???

Puh-lease!

There is a special place in hell for you and those of your ilk!

How can Rumsfeld even compare Ford or Reagan?! These presidents lived under different eras and time. The current president has his own faults, fortunately, the American people see through it after going into a undeclared war under false pretenses and using 9/11 as a rallying excuse to do so. There is no love lost here for this man, Rumsfeld. He did more of a disservice to the country by staying than actually having any form of principles.

What is worse than anything is that none of these people will be held accountable for committing near treason, plundering the country's wealth, mass murder of innocent civilians and the destruction of a country.

I am for defending our nation, but, not under false pretenses. If the country needs to go to war, than it is the job of Congress to declare it and define set goals. Truly a tragedy for the history books and the American and Iraqi people.

Notice that in his list of "misrepresented" Republican Presidents, he conveniently omitted Nixon… the MOST comparable to the current Scumbag in Chief out of the bunch!

If only the current administration could be impeached, or also resign prior to it…

What good would Bush diaries do you? First of all, I'm confident that he probably cannot read or write. Second of all, I know that he lies to himself because there is no other way he would belive all the crap that comes out of his own mouth otherwise.

The 'eastern media'? My entirely accurate impression of GWB as a moron must have come from those darn Chinese newspapers.

"but can't recall the last time he spoke with the president."

Good to see he's still keeping it real with the "can't recall" gig. After all that time in this administration of apparent amnesiacs, it's a wonder he can remember his own name.

The interview with GQ should have been conducted from a jail cell. That's where this wretched man should be residing for all the harm he's done to America.

Rumsfeld's legacy is the greatest military in history. A miliary that would be but a hollow shell of itself had the dems in Congress been given their way..

Ahh, my comments got removed because I voiced what I feel should happen to Rumsfeld. So much fold holding the constitution in tact, eh? We should give them an ice cream party for committing treason!

Rumsfeld is a sad bitter man. He was thrown under the bus by his friends in crime. he was no more or less guilty than they were but someone had to go and an appearance of change was made.
Frankly if there was true justice all of them would be out of office and on trial for the war crime of starting a war under false pretenses and crimes against humanity as we (the USA) helped define after WW2 with the trials at Nuremberg.

Rummy really just didn't compare Bush to Gerald Ford did he? I mean seriously now…

I'm going to go out on a limb here but I'm willing to bet that Ford's daddy wasn't the reason Ford got into Yale Law and I'm sure as h*ll he wasn't a C student like Bush Jr.

Maybe it's just me, but Bush's antics over the last 7 years have placed him in a category all his own and I really don't think he has to worry about any company for centuries to come…

Yes, because misrepresenting former Presidents in the media MUST imply that Bush Jr. is a scholar among men, right?! The difference with Bush is that he doesn't need the media to spin anything about him…he creates all his own negative spin all by himself. If he's really that smart and we stupid, "common" Americans simply can't comprehend his grand design then maybe the White House should open up and show us all the stuff they've been keeping locked up. I'm SURE there's some genius work hidden behind all those skeletons somewhere…surely…

One of the worst SoD the United States has ever seen. Good riddence - one can only hope that you are held accountable for your mistakes and lined up against the wall with the rest of your co-conspirators.

I would like to read George Bush's diaries and hear his honest opinions about the issues occurring in the rest of the world. I can understand if he was caught up in the chaos if presidency, but if he couldn't handle it, why did he run?