Shorter Donald Rumsfeld: I have no idea what I'm doing

In a spectacular display of incompetence, United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified before the Senate, regarding the largest defence lease in the Pentagon's history, that he had no knowledge whatsoever about large procurements, which amount in billions of dollars, and is not capable of keeping track of activities in the largest operational organization in the world.

Despite trillions, yes trillions, lost in the enormous military budget, a deficient strategy and poor planning for the war in Iraq, an incapacity to anticipate obvious consequences, such as home-grown terrorism from Iraqis who view Americans as occupiers, bizarre displays of lunacy and public non sequiturs, there does not seem to be any mechanism in the American political system to hold the Secretary of Defence, the holder of the largest discretionary budget in the world, accountable.

Any individual with a mere fraction of that power and responsibility cannot say "We know for a fact where they are" about any subject and simply never be held accountable. Any organization incapable of enforcing responsibility in such matters is dysfunctional and political institutions are not exceptions. The undertaking of such a serious matter as war should obviously hold conditions, such as severe consequences in the case of errors. Any accountability regarding the people who have the power to wage war should take serious any allegation that supports and impose consequences if they turned out to be wrong. The lives of a few people, not matter how powerful politically, are insignificant to history. Most systems are currently configured in a way that can more effectively work to secure its leaders' reputation over their actual work. Expecting anything else than pork barrel politics is at best delusional, hypocritically criminal.

This is a case study of the failure of checks and balances short-sighted by secrecy in policy-making. While the benefits of executive privilege remain anecdotal at best, its damages are countless in human history and repeated only because no significant commitment exists to evolve politics into a generator of human evolution, rather than being its most primitive institution. Staying the course in such conditions is criminally insane, yet continues undebated by the single most useless political institution in the world, the United States Senate, now a mere shadow of its history. It is very hard to take seriously a group of rich old white males who are supposed to represent the American population debating steroid use in baseball, in a committee on government reform no less, gay marriage, the life of a woman in a vegetative state, flag burning, video games and other insane and utterly pointless matters. If all other problems had been solved, these matters may deserve a few passing lines in political debate. But with so many problems plaguing our societies, it is unwise to continue without significant changes in the way our political institutions work.

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