Rumsfeld: The Undertaker's Tally

If you've a couple of hours to spare this weekend, I strongly recommend a visit to the ever-rewarding Tomdispatch, there to print out and read "The Undertaker's Tally"[Part 1 here and Part 2 here], an in-depth look at the political life of one Donald Rumsfeld, by the historian Roger Morris.

Rumsfeld's career, for Morris, serves as a useful peg upon which to hang a broader account of the formative years of the unravelling disaster that is current United States foreign policy. He casts a cold, clear and withering eye over not only the career of the former Pentagon chief, but also the cynical, ruthless rise of his neo-conservative fellow travellers. In doing so, he explains how Washington's power came to be the simultaneously calculating and chaotic force that it is today. Its a compelling, revealing and, in many ways, chilling insight into the inner workings of the systems - and the callous, mediocre people who run them - that dictate the fate of millions across the earth.

And if you've any time left after that, take a look at the new interview with veteran dissident intellectual Noam Chomsky over at the excellent Foreign Policy in Focus.