Friday, June 12, 2009

Donald Rumsfeld and Taos, NM

When I read of Taos, New Mexico, I think of artists who visited and were inspired by the landscape of New Mexico, such as Georgia O'Keefe, and of writers such as D. H. Lawrence who once owned a ranch near Taos. Taos has a reputation of being an artist's community. So I was surprised--stupidly so, perhaps--that Donald Rumsfeld owns a ranch near Taos, New Mexico; he divides much of his time these days between a home in Maryland and his ranch in Taos. It's easy to view public figures as caricatures, particularly when one disagrees with decisions those people have made. Bradley Graham's article "Decline and Fall: Donald Rumsfeld's Dramatic End," reveals some interesting details about the man who receives a lot of blame (and rightly so) for misjudgments in the early days of the Iraq war. The farm in Taos is just one of those minor details.

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