Rumsfeld: Evangelical Praises for an Unrepentant Mass Murderer

The legacy of George W Bush is being slowly rehabilitated. In many circles it is already complete. The dismal state of the country and world by the end of his presidency has been forgotten and re-written and he's been transformed into cute and bumbling Grandpa George.

But that's not what he was. He tore the Middle East apart, sowed cancerous seeds within American society and its judiciary, used technology for evil means and left behind a legacy of war, mass death, torture, kidnapping, assassination and the like. He was and is a monster and yet he was the darling of the American Evangelicals – one of their own. It's a testimony to the sad and degenerate state of American Christianity.

Riding on the coattails of the Bush legacy is that of Rumsfeld. And yet he began his work long before Bush II came on the scene. Along with Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld worked behind the scenes to re-establish the Imperial Presidency and the constitutionally dubious notion of the Unitary Executive. Rumsfeld and Cheney came onto the scene of executive-presidential level politics in the 1970's – when the country and the system was reeling and in shambles from Vietnam, Watergate, and the many other scandals and revelations concerning the US government. After his stint in the Ford administration he became involved in the corporate world but officially returned to government in the 1980's serving as an envoy and diplomat – famously acting as a liaison for the US as it sought to arm and support Saddam Hussein in his war with Iran. He became involved with various think-tanks and by the 1990's was certainly a major figure within Right-wing circles.

By hitching his wagon to the Neo-Conservative movement and the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), Rumsfeld was once more catapulted into the executive branch and as Defense Secretary he oversaw the transformation of the military in the aftermath of 9/11. There would have been no kidnappings, assassinations, torture, Black Sites, Guantanamo and the like without Rumsfeld. His mark is all over these things and in addition to these socially corrosive and deeply immoral acts, his legacy is also one of military failure. He ranks alongside the likes of Robert McNamara and William Westmoreland as an architect of a failed war policy – policies which destroyed and wasted whole societies and yet ultimately failed in their objectives. And like McNamara and Westmoreland, he was unrepentant although Rumsfeld took this and the very nature of such mendacity to a new level. He told atrocious and very consequential lies and used them to start and perpetuate wars of conquest.

He was also known for (and praised by Evangelicals) for attaching Bible verses to his briefings during his time in the Bush administration. Evangelicals laud such uses of Scripture but Christians are rightly appalled at his immoral opportunism and the episode exposes the extent of Rumsfeld's opportunism and willingness to resort to manipulation.

I couldn't care less about Rumsfeld's current status except for the fact that upon the announcement of his death I happened to notice Christian media and radio in particular offering up praise to him – even while ignoring his legacy of illegality, torture and the like. He was a monster and it was disconcerting (though hardly unsurprising) to hear Evangelicals offering him praise – effectively a well done good and faithful servant-type endorsement. It was sickening and only further testifies to the apostate character of American mainstream Christianity.

Places like Iraq and Afghanistan are still suffering from Rumsfeld's doctrines and policies. He was inept and ignorant even at the tasks he set his hand to. He excelled as a bureaucrat, as a scheming mandarin working the system. Needless to say he was utterly despised by many within those same circles.

In some respects it's a shame he did not live to see the 'Saigon Moment' in Kabul, when the Taliban re-takes the city as it seems likely that they will. But it doesn't matter, Rumsfeld is dead and has faced judgment, learned the truth and is answering for his life and deeds. The Evangelicals may praise him (and the larger Bush legacy to which he is tied) and re-write the history – something they love to do as much as their political opponents, and yet the truth stands out and is known by those who love it and seek it.

They will undoubtedly name ships, bridges, and buildings after him. Such men are memorialised in the imperial system but the accolades and even ecclesiastical endorsements by court theologians cannot hide or obscure the evil he represented and the evil system he served.