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Donald Rumsfeld�s Snowflake Poetry Is Exactly What America Needs Right Now
In newfound verse from 2001, the former defense secretary rages against time, space and indecipherable
acronyms.e honest: When you heard Donald Rumsfeld had released his �snowflakes,� your first
thoughts were that the former defense secretary must have taken hostages at a Brooklyn Starbucks.
In fact, George Washington University�s National Security Archive this week released
a colossal trove�more than 900 pages�of Rumsfeldian memos from 2001, which were known
back then as �snowflakes.�
Almost instantly, the Twitter tag #rummysnowflakes whisked us to the days when Rumsfeld was a
media sensation, as America prepared to fight two wars with a tax cut tied behind its back.
In Pentagon briefings, he regaled the nation with pithy comments about shaved gorillas
and chickens in barnyards, and in 2002, he rendered to the world his oratorical masterpiece
about �known knowns,� the things that we know we know.
�We know there are some things we do not know,� he continued.
�But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don�t know we don�t know.� A
star was born.
It formed the basis of Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld,
my collection of his spoken verses.
Like Andy Warhol�s �15 minutes of fame,� Rumsfeld�s �unknown unknowns� will be
remembered long after Guantanamo Bay is underwater.
But what about these newfound memos, an avalanche of words that until now have languished for
17 years in bureaucratic limbo?
Is there poetry in the piles?
I have looked, and I am now choosing my words as carefully as possible:
It�s as if we found an NPR tote bag owned by Emily Dickinson!
People, this is poetry gold!
The Snowflake Verses reveal an evolving bard, bursting with creativity�Rumsfeld wrote
memos the way Donald Trump downs Diet Cokes�as he faced his personal unknown unknowns.
Look closely, and you can see the roots of his future existentialism.
CONUNDRUM
In thinking through one of the problems
between State and Defense, we have to make sure
that none of your people at the levels below you folks
end up clearing things and then getting it up to you
and you not agreeing and then we have to go back
and undo the clearance with State and NSC.
Sept. 24, 2001, 6:23 p.m.
Throughout these verses, Rumsfeld paints himself as a solitary man, seeking to do right in
a world gone mad.
source politico