Donald Rumsfeld's epitaph was written long ago

and it's full of known knowns

I didn’t realise until a day or so ago that Donald Rumsfeld was buried this week in Arlington Cemetery. He died at the end of June but the final ceremony of his passing coincided with America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

It served, the New York Times gravely noted, “as another coda to the 20-year conflict”.

I suppose, particularly for those who ply my trade and are eager to discern coincidences and common threads to draw a narrative together. The truth, of course, is that the date for Rumsfeld’s interment was set long before the events of the past fortnight.

The twinning of a funeral and Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban makes a neat story but one that isn’t necessarily as coherent as we intone. That said, there are some reasons to note the final moment of Rumsfeld’s life and death.

Mostly because he was one of the chief architects of America’s over-reaction to 9/11. I don’t mean the invasion of Afghanistan; that was legitimate in light of the then Taliban government’s refusal to hand o…