On this very solemn and sad third anniversary of the Iraq war, our esteemed Defense Secretary (feel free to insert sarcasm here) shows that he has no understanding of history.

In a printed op/ed today, Rummy compared the Iraq quagmire to post-war Germany, saying: "Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis."

His remarks are receiving a thumbs down from former members of both Republican and Democratic administrations, who say that you cannot compare the situation in Iraq with post-war Germany.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who served Presidents Nixon and Ford), said of Rummy's comments: "In Germany, the opposition was completely crushed; there was no significant resistance movement."

Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser, was also critical of Rummy's comments: "That is really absolutely crazy to anyone who knows history.  There was no alternative to our presence. The Germans were totally crushed. For Secretary Rumsfeld to be talking this way suggests either he doesn't know history or he's simply demagoguing." (I vote for options A and B here!)

Rummy's failure to fully comprehend the situation on the ground in Iraq, not to mention the failure of the Defense Department to send our troops in with a plan to win the peace, is part of the reason why Iraq is on the verge of civil war today.

On this third anniversary of an illegal, baseless war, my prayers are with our fallen soldiers and their families; not to mention the innocent Iraqis who were killed as a result of the culture of violence cultivated by the Bush Administration.  May they forgive us some day.

Rumsfeld's Iraq-Germany analogy disputed

Former top officials disagree with comparison