Rumsfeld's Logic

Here's an interesting email I got from a friend today.

This reminds me of one of Donald Rumsfeld's "poems",

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

Leave it to "Rummie" to clear things up, but I think we can add a category to Captain Morgan's typology. Namely, that there are things we think we know but in fact do not know. It's what some post-modernist thinkers are calling the end of history and it's easy to see why. Should the propaganda and cover ups be utterly complete, that there is no trace of what really occurred then the lies and deceit become what occurred. You can only imagine how difficult it will be for future historians, who may try to piece together any recent events, to plow through all of the propaganda, innuendo, cover-ups, lies etc and actually decide what is true and what is not. You could probably argue quite convincingly that in a lot of cases they simply won't be able to extract the truth. I have read Hersh's article. Some of the stuff the Shrubya administration believes is nuts. They appear to have become victims of their own propaganda.
America has never really had freedom of the press. If they are not subservient to their government then they are bound to make money by winning viewers. The only way they could have any good journalism would be if social and cultural conditions support consumption of it. As it stands now I find it thoroughly repugnant to watch them exploit stories of child abuse, child porn and murder just to keep their viewers watching. Not to mention the moronic "feel good" stories they intersperse in their newscasts. The evening newscast has become a nauseating emotional rollercoaster ride.
I believe Shrubya will strike Iran too and there's not a lot that will prevent it. He's had a Messiah Complex since entering office and after 9/11 he hasn't tried to hide it. If Shrubya's Presidency isn't already poised to go down in history as the worst the US has ever known, then a nuclear strike on Iran will surely cement that legacy. The US is still the only country ever to use nukes against another country and this is in a world that has seen a maniac like Josef Stalin running a country that possessed them.

Paul Schofield.

Some comments: Paul does a nice job of describing the 'unknown knowns' the Bush administration is completely oblivious too and it's consequences. However, Rumsfeld's 'poem' was actually made to highlight the existence of 'unknown unknowns', those unknown factors that are completely unpredictable. Rumsfeld took the concept of 'unknown unknowns' to its logical conclusion by failing utterly to heed the extensive advice given to him on how to stabilize Iraq. Despite repeatedly commiting stupendous blunders Rumsfeld has somehow avoided pikcing up the label he so richly deserves from the American public- criminally incompetent. Instead he gets chastised for being 'abrasive' or 'lacking in tact'. Wake up people, the man is directly responsible for creating the quagmire in Iraq. Instead of being praised by Bush the lesser, he should be hanging from his heels in the public square.