Basically, it's become evident that we can't believe a word coming out of the Pentagon's mouth...

Anyhow, Rumsfeld is finally testifying today.

Update: Matt Yglesias suggests another disturbing possibility. The Pentagon doesn't really know who Zarqawi's number two guy is, which is why we regularly hear from them that they have captured or killed Zarqawi's #2 right arm, top lieutenant, etc. I was basing my blanket statement on the dishonesty of the Pentagon under Rumsfeld on a series of recent reports -- the Pentagon's initial cover up of the circumstances under which Pat Tillman was killed (long enough for the media to portray him as a great football hero who had been killed by the enemy) even though the fact that he was killed by friendly fire was known immediately, the funny business emerging now about the cover up of the investigation of his death, the way it has tried to ignore Ian Fishback's allegations of detainee abuse at Camp Mercury for months until Fishback was forced to go to the Senate Armed Services committee and Human Rights Watch, the fact that it sat on the Abu Ghraib revelations similarly for months until Seymour Hersh and 60 Minutes aired them, as part of a body of only the most recent evidence that Rumsfeld and his spokesmen have a propensity for dishonesty, cover up, etc.

Posted by Laura at September 29, 2005 09:51 AM