Malevolent Mediocrities Incapable of Making a Balanced Assessment of Donald Rumsfeld June 01, 2011


"It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past." Karl von Clausewitz

By Con George-Kotzabasis

It’s good and encouraging to see someone, like Steve Clemons, (See The Washington Note) from the opposing side, highlighting and commending the pensive and important “Rumsfeld Memo,” that the former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, presented on October 16, 2003, to his subordinates for discussion, which through its questions attempted to open new vistas of strategic thinking of how to confront this stealthy and unique enemy.

Donald Rumsfeld, gifted with a strong character, high intelligence, and impeccable political responsibility as a public servant, would ineluctably become a maligned figure before the eyes of all the spineless and thoughtless mediocrities, who with the appearance of the first difficulties of the Iraq war and its errors, would blame him for them, as if any human who was involved in such stupendous undertaking and facing a singularly inimitable enemy, could do so without committing mistakes.

For those who can make a dispassionate and in-depth assessment of the former secretary’s thoughts and actions, as depicted in his book “Known and Unknown,” will give him the credit that is due to him for his prudence and indomitable spirit as an actor in the fog of war.

The Art of Politics and War is to Know Thy Enemy


A short reply by Con George-Kotzabasis to:

The Holocaust Declaration by Charles Krauthammer

Washington Post, April 11, 2008

The art of politics and war is to “know thy enemy”. And once the enemy is revealed to be irreconcilable and unappeasable, in this case Iran, because of his apocalyptic and chiliastic nature as an irrational actor and therefore most dangerous, one has to destroy such an enemy before he becomes stronger. If preemption is not going to fall into a state of desuetude and finish up as a comical term losing all its seriousness, it must be used against the centrifugal regime of Ahmadinejad relentlessly and efficiently. It’s necessary therefore and timely that the Bush administration makes an open and unambiguous threat to Iran that if the latter does not immediately cease its nuclear program the U.S. will be targeting by an unspecified force de frappe the triangular leadership of Iran, i.e., the mullahs, the high officials of the government, and the higher echelons of the army, in a surprise attack. Only such a clear threat against Iran’s leadership may create a shifting of positions among the latter, and, indeed, a “palace revolt” against the Ahmadinejad regime. And if there are signs that this will not happen, then the U.S. will have no other option but to attack Iran.

Charles Krauthammer’s proposal of the “Holocaust Declaration”, I’m afraid is impolitic. As in America and many other countries in the world many of their peoples still breathe the poisonous vapors of anti-Semitism, and hence, the “Declaration” will be seen by many as a Jewish stratagem and therefore politically will not become a rallying point.

I rest on my oars: Your turn now

The Necessity of Knowing the Enemy to Prevent Catastrophe
By Con George-Kotzabasis

In the interminable crises and conflicts that is the natural order of the world it’s necessary to “know thy enemy” in advance if one is to abort timely the birth of these conflicts from arising in all their ugly features. This website is committed to the goal of preventing and resolving impending great dangers. To fulfill this goal, however, depends on our strong desire and willingness to remove our belongings, to paraphrase the Great Russian writer, Vladimir Nabokov, from the premises of ideology. The latter in its tendentiousness ‘discolors’ the multiple and variable colors of reality, and its sundry nuances, and places it in its ideological dogmatic monochromatic mold. Ideological convictions have no ‘civil rights’ on this website that searches for the truth since unlike omniscient ideology we do not possess truth.

It’s on this objective search and its data that we will be writing our essays and recommendations and will be passing them to the heads of governments that have the wherewithal to nip-in-the-bud the dangers of our epoch. To timely stop the “soundless” hoofing of The Four “Flying”(9/11) Horsemen Of The Apocalypse who with scimitars in their hands ‘loaded’ with weapons of mass destruction, and indeed, soon with nuclear ones, provided with the compliments of President Ahmadinejad.

Who Has the Right to Declare War?

Reply by Con George-Kotzabasis to:

Now to Say Never Again
By George Williams

Professor Williams with the typical lawyer’s chicanery and the arrogance of historical and political ignorance argues that Parliamentary approval should be the prerequisite for the declaration of war. To do so however is to deprive the sagacious right of statesmen to make the decision for war and give it instead to the “swirl”, to use Paul Keating’s word describing his colleagues in the Senate, of mediocre politicians.

War being an instrument of last resort is not made by a lightly populist decision, as Williams implies, but by a well –informed resolute and wise leadership that leads its people to war as an absolute necessity when a nation is threatened or attacked by a deadly irreconcilable enemy.

Williams’ proposal is neither intellectually and historically wise, nor does it have the depth, prudence, and firmness of statesmanship. It’s instead the proposal of an unreconstructed political wimp pontificating from his left-leaning academic chair and echoing the constant refrain of the illusionist pacifists of No to War, as if the world was and is a loving circle of holding hands.