Rumsfeld’s Poetry

“There are also unknown unknowns.”
—Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on ties between Iraq and terrorist organizations, Feb. 12, 2002

I think we all came to realize, in this decade, the importance of understanding that we don’t know what we don’t know. So it was a statement of truth (and one of the few he offered us from that podium). In its own Zen-master way, it was poetic—even Thoreau-like. I like to picture him wandering around his ranch, maybe skipping a stone on a pond (à la Mike Gravel) and wondering where the ripples go when they disappear. That kind of thing. Philosophically, Rumsfeld was a step ahead of President Bush, who was the epitome of not knowing what you don’t know. Bush’s problem was deeper: he didn’t even know there were things he didn’t know he didn’t know. He was in a triple bind. Maybe if Rumsfeld spent as much time philosophizing with Bush as he did with the Pentagon press corps, we wouldn’t have invaded Iraq.