Donald Rumsfeld certainly is an interesting character. After delivering a controversial speech to the American Legion this week, the Defense Secretary responded to the ensuing hullabaloo with an LA Times op-ed — in which he proceeded to make the exact same points that made his speech controversial in the first place.

In speaking to our veterans, I suggested several questions to guide us during this struggle against violent extremists:

* With the growing lethality and availability of weapons, can we truly afford to believe that vicious extremists can somehow be appeased?

* Can we really continue to think that free countries can negotiate a separate peace with terrorists?

* Can we truly afford to pretend that the threats today are simply "law enforcement" problems rather than fundamentally different threats requiring fundamentally different approaches?

* Can we truly afford to return to the destructive view that America — not the enemy — is the real source of the world's troubles?

It's a shame these questions are so tragically flawed.

And speaking of Rumsfeld, reports of his reaching out to Democrats have been greatly exaggerated.

– Guest Post by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report