Rumsfeld was Bush's Rasputin

[babylonsister]

Allison Kilkenny

radio host, writer, allisonkilkenny.com
Posted: May 17, 2009 10:41 AM
Rumsfeld was Bush's Rasputin


If you want to read a really crazy article, hop over to Robert Draper's article in GQ. It's all about how former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld acted as a modern day Rasputin by manipulating the adolescent emotions and exploiting the evangelical beliefs of George W. Bush.

Rasputin was a Russian mystic who curried favor with Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, by exploiting the superstitious beliefs of the royals. No one really thought a single, crazy religious nut could bring down an entire empire, and Rasputin's critics even derisively called him the "mad monk."

But Rasputin was highly influential in the decisions of the royals, and when he wasn't raping nuns, he was an official court official. Elements of Rasputin foreshadowed modern evangelicalism. He used to preach about sin, and repentance, though he was simultaneously a sex fiend and a drunk. Religious and a hypocrite? Shock! Horror!

Flash-forward to our own Donald Rumsfeld. In GQ's highly insightful article, Draper describes how Rumsfeld utilized some Rasputin-like techniques to manipulate Bush's more mystic beliefs. That includes delivering highly classified intelligence briefings to Bush that featured, "triumphant, color images from the previous days' war efforts" and "a quote...from the Bible, from the book of Psalms: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him...To deliver their soul from death."

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-kilkenny/rumsfeld-was-bushs-rasput_b_204358.html

[Enrique]

1. Rumsputin!

someone needs to photoshop a beard onto Rummy.

[katmondoo]

2. I love the connection

[pretzel4gore]

3. Nonsense. Ever heard of hemophilia?

Nicholas and Alexandra were proud of the son Alexis, who was born after a batch of beautiful daughters- and who had hemophilia, the royal blood disease associated with Queen Victoria. Rasputin was a 'holy man' or 'staret' which has a long honoured tradition in Russia; and the rich were as prone to believe as the poor. Tsar Nicholas 2nd's father, Tsar Alexander, was murdered by assasins despite having tried to modernise Russia, establish a 'Duma' parliament and ended serfdom...he was only 48 when he died (Vladmir Lenin's beloved elder brother was hanged for being part of the murder plot, and Lenin never forgave the Romanovs)...Rasputin, as recounted in Robert Massie's wonderful book 'Nicholas and Alexandra' was indeed a rogue, a drunk and so on, but, by some incredible, still unexplained process, was able to cure episodes of the child tsar's hemophilia suffering (even a slight bump could cause internal bleeding, and insane agony for child and family!) The Rasputin story is tragedy writ large, almost impossible to believe, even today! In one case, while the family was vacationing in Finland, the 10 year old boy fell and hurt his knee. Doctors tried everything to stop the swelling (unfortunately, the parents refused to allow painkillers because they feared future Tsar addiction) and for 2 days they all went through hell as the kid basically was dying in front of them. From bumping his knee. Then Alexandra, who was German, (and Nicholas foolishly insisted on honouring Russia commitment to stay in the first world war with Germany, at a horrible cost in troop's lives!) managed to phone Rasputin, who, on hearing about the accident, told the mother her son was now ok, and, as Massie reports, inexplicably, the child was! Just like that. No one to this day knows how Rasputin did it, but he somehow stopped the effects of hemophilia, and it was this- plus Rasputin's anger at being scorned by Nicholas's ministers, including several men who would have got Russia out of the war, and made parliamentary democracy work, men such as Sergie Witte (who built the trans Siberian railway) thus saving Russia from disaster- it was this that made Rasputin powerful, and unlike hardly any of rumsmell's greedy stupidity). Rasputin influenced Alexandra to get her husband to get rid of gov officials who saw how bad the optics were, people talked, and the war was going badly as it was! But Rasputin certainly wasn't trying to hurt the Royal family, or Russia, or even those who hated him- he really was stoned half the frigging time! To compare that historic tragedy of Russian Revolution to the farce of the bush 'greed is good' america is... just plain misleading.