You gotta give Donald Rumsfeld this. He’s doing his best to cover his behind as he walks out the door. First he dropped a “snowflake” memo, obtained by the New York Times, admitting that the war in Iraq was “not working,” and exploring possible exit strategies.

Now he’s conceding that the US is not engaged in a “war on terror,” even though he previously claimed we were.

Here’s what he told Cal Thomas yesterday: “I don’t think I would have called it the war on terror. I don’t mean to be critical of those who have. Certainly, I have used the phrase frequently. Why do I say that? Because the word ‘war’ conjures up World War II more than it does the Cold War. It creates a level of expectation of victory and an ending within 30 or 60 minutes of a soap opera. It isn’t going to happen that way. Furthermore, it is not a ‘war on terror.’ Terror is a weapon of choice for extremists who are trying to destabilize regimes and (through) a small group of clerics, impose their dark vision on all the people they can control. So ‘war on terror’ is a problem for me.”

Such words would have been heretical to Rumsfeld a year ago. Now he practically sounds like a Democrat. What’s next? Is Rummy going to support Obama in ’08?