tod's scarpe donnatod's scarpetod's scarpe Opinion

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Member Center &nbsp| Subscriber Services | Special Offers By Tod Robberson / Editorial Writer

1:45 PM on Wed., Apr. 6,scarpe tod's, 2011 | Permalink

trobberson@dallasnews.com | Bio

I've just started reading Donald Rumsfeld's book,tod's scarpe donna, Known and Unknown. I have to say, there was so, so much to disagree with Rumsfeld on when he was secretary of defense. Even so, and despite his many, many serious mistakes, I've always regarded him as one of the smartest people ever to serve at the top levels of the U.S. government.

So I'm at the early point in the book where Rumsfeld is recalling his days as special U.S. envoy to Lebanon in 1983-84, right after 241 U.S. servicemen were blown up, hostages were being seized left and right, the Syrians were bearing down militarily, and Lebanon was splitting apart. The United States had sent around 2,500 Marines to Lebanon as "peacekeepers," which was about as amorphous a mission as you can get, especially when the U.S. government had already taken sides in favor of the Christian president in a sectarian war. Three other nations -- France, Britain and Italy -- had joined the mission in Lebanon.

The parallels with the current Libya mission are noticeable. No, there are no U.S. boots on the ground in Libya, but our mission is badly ill-defined, as it was in Lebanon, and the level of coordination and resolve between Washington and our allies is deteriorating by the day, as it did in Lebanon. Here's what Rumsfeld wrote to then-Secretary of State George Shultz about the Lebanon situation:
"close the gap between inflated perceptions of our abilities and reality; never use U.S. troops as a "peacekeeping force,tod's scarpe," we were too big a target' keep reminding ourselves that it is easier to get into something than it is to get out of it."
Since I was in Lebanon at the time, I'm reading this chapter carefully to measure how much Rumsfeld is stretching the facts to suit his own ends. So far, I've found nothing -- nothing -- to indicate he's sugar-coating his account.

If the Obama administration is even remotely contemplating deeper involvement in Libya, I certainly hope they look back on the Lebanon disaster and seek their guidance accordingly. The Libyan rebels might be nice people, but they've got to fight their own battles using the minimal aerial support the West is handing to them.