Ten Questions: Rumsfeld Interrogates Himself at Senate Hearing

Donald Rumsfeld’s signature style during an interview is to abruptly launch into a series of questions and answers about the topic at hand that his questioner might ask, spun in a way that casts himself in the best possible light.

The technique has become hackneyed and self-parodying over the six years Rumsfeld has served as secretary of defense — and a politician who actually cared what people thought of him might try to come up with another linquistic device.

Instead, during his testimony before the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Rumsfeld offered a tour de force performance of self-interrogation.
Here are the 10 tough questions Donald Rumsfeld asked himself at the hearing:

1. Are there still Taliban around? You bet.
2. Are they occupying safe havens in Afghanistan and other places, correction in Pakistan and other places? Certainly they are.
3. Is the violence up? Yes.
4. Does the violence tend to be up during the summer and spring, summer, and fall months? Yes it does. And it tends to decline during the winter period.
5. Does that represent failed policy? I don?t know, I would say not. I think you?ve got an awful lot of very talented people engaged in this, and the decisions that are being made are being made with great care after a great deal of consideration.
6. Are there setbacks? Yes.
7. Are there things that people can?t anticipate? Yes.
8. Does the enemy have a brain and continue to make adjustments on the ground, requiring our forces to continue to make adjustments? You bet.
9. Is that going to continue to be the case? I think so.
10. Is this problem going to get solved in the near term about this violence struggle against extremism? No, I don?t believe it is. I think it?s going to take some time. And I know the question was some wars lasted three years, some wars lasted four years, some wars lasted five years. The Cold War lasted 40 plus years.

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