This past saturday evening I watched the new Errol Morris documentary, "The Unknown Known" about former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
The Bush Administration (2001-2008) is one of the darkest times in American history. Thanks in large part to Donald Rumsfeld, who was the principal architect behind the War in Iraq. In this film Morris mostly lets Rumsfeld do the talking. He uses over 20,000 memos Rumsfeld sent during his time as Secretary of Defense as a way to frame the interview. Rumsfeld fondly nicknamed his memos, "snowflakes' which help portray the man's mindset and obsession with nomenclature. They demonstrate Rumsfeld's view of himself not only at the past when they were sent but in the present.
Rumsfeld argues that history will decide if the Iraq War was a mistake. Even though it's pretty clear from the fact that after ten years of fighting that the U.S. not only lost the war, but the point. It is estimated that anywhere from 150,000-500,000 Iraqis were killed from 2003-2009 (the deadliest years of the war). He doesn't take any responsibilities for his actions. Even when it is clear that he never had an exit strategy, or an idea of what victory would even look like in the country. He invaded a fairly stable country that had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al Qaeda and by taking out Saddam Hussein (admittedly a horrible dictator) he made Iraq fall to chaos and strengthen neighboring Iran. Not to mention create more enemies for the United States.
As if his lack of remorse for the Iraq War wasn't bad enough he also treats the use of torture during the Bush Administration in the most cavalier way. The most obvious aspect to why is because of his own prejudice against Muslims. He doesn't see them as human. It's clear from the moment 9/11 happens and the U.S. decides to retaliate in Afghanistan. The Bush Doctrine purposefully went against the 1949 Geneva Code that stipulates how a Prisoner of War (POW) should be treated. Thus changing American foreign policy for the worse. It hurts our credibility. Because now during the war on terror Americans can capture Al Qaeda / Terrorist / Taliban combatants and instead of treating them humanly under the Geneva Code they can deny them rights since they changed the language so that they aren't seen as soldiers but enemy combatants. This sort of prejudice allowed for the inhumane treatment at Guantanamo Bay that eventually migrated to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
By the end of the movie it becomes clear how obsessed Rumsfeld was with words and how they could be used to define unspeakable actions and to convince the American people we were the ones wearing the white hats. The mere number of memos requesting for definitions for terminology he'd use as propaganda to sell the Iraq War to the American people, but also to defend it were more than the number of memos trying to end the war.
You can watch this documentary in theaters around the country, on OnDemand, iTunes and Amazon instant.
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