Known and Unknown
The title comes from one of the authors main themes: there are things we know, things we know we do not know and things that we don’t know we don’t know.
Most of the book was a decent recollection of the man’s career in public service and worth the read.
However…..and this is a big however, this is the first of this variety of book that has caused me to lower my opinion of the author. The main reason for this is his complete failure to deal with his responsibility for the debacle that occurred in Iraq after the successful war. As I understand the facts: President Bush asked at one point who would take the lead in the reconstruction and security operations in Iraq when fighting ceased. There was a bit of a contest between the Departments of State and Defense as they jockeyed for position.
After Rumsfeld pushed for his department to take the lead, Bush agreed to let him take responsibility. The fact is tho…the Defense Department failed miserably in the task and Rumsfeld makes it clear that their heart was never in it. And to make matters worse. Rumsfeld fails to deal with it in any responsible way in his book. His complete dodge of the problem was a real disappointment