Words by Donald Rumsfeld, in haiku & tanka

ON IRAQI BATTALIONS
A lot of people
are chasing the wrong rabbit
hole, it seems to me.

ON MAKING PEACE WITH TERRORISTS
It don’t work that way:
You feed the alligator,
hope it eats you last?

ON THE FIELDS OF WAR
They can’t win a war.
The only place they can win
is a test of wills,
if we say ‘the cost is too high’
and ‘the time is too long.’

RUMSFELD URGES ACTION
Iraq’s leaders should
write a new Constitution
and get on with it.