Does Rummy Get It?

WHAT ARE WE to make of Rumsfeld's latest assessment of the situation in Iraq. In a brief interview today he was asked if Iraq was closer to a Civil War. This was his response:

Oh, I don't know. You know, I thought about that last night, and just musing over the words, the phrase, and what constitutes it. If you think of our Civil War, this is really very different. If you think of civil wars in other countries, this is really quite different. There is - there is a good deal of violence in Baghdad and two or three other provinces, and yet in 14 other provinces there's very little violence or numbers of incidents. So it's a - it's a highly concentrated thing. It clearly is being stimulated by people who would like to have what could be characterized as a civil war and win it, but I'm not going to be the one to decide if, when or at all.

You can read the full transcript at the DoD website.

I think Andrew Sullivan has it right: Rumsfeld's detachment from his own responsibility is breathtaking.