Rumsfeld Didn't Lie, But He Should Still Go

Early Warning by William M. Arkin - washingtonpost.com: "Rumsfeld Didn't Lie, But He Should Still Go
Anyone who has ever been in a relationship or taken Psych 101 knows that accusing someone of lying is unlikely to unleash truth-telling. And more important, it exposes the hand, and the conclusion, of the questioner.

Yesterday, protestors repeatedly interrupted the Defense Secretary during a speech at the Southern Center for International Studies, accusing Rumsfeld of 'lying' to the American people.

No doubt used to traveling in a limousine with bodyguards, going to the right parties, filling his time with official functions and hanging out with the troops, did Donald Rumsfeld leave the lecture hall in Atlanta yesterday and say to his aide 'don't ever f***n let that happen again' or did he chuckle and say 'God Bless America.?'

The incidents culminated with an exchange between the Secretary of Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst -- Rumsfeld to his credit, told the organizers to let McGovern speak -- in which McGovern managed to successfully quote the Secretary back to himself saying things he wished he never said.

But did the Secretary lie? Did he know some truth and intentionally tell the American people the opposite to manipulate them? I don't think so.
I don't want anyone to accuse me of cherry picking the transcript of yesterday's confrontation. Here is Editor and Publisher's version, Voice of America, and NewsBusters transcript, as well as the transcript of the three network's evening news shows last night.

'Why did you lie to get us into a war?' Ray McGovern asked.

'Well, first of all, I haven't lied. I did not lie then,' Rumsfeld answered.
McGovern pressed about pre-war statements regarding we"