Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld concludes in his new autobiography that the war in Iraq has been worth the cost and remains largely unapologetic about his handling of the conflict, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Had the government of Saddam Hussein remained in power the Middle East would be “far more perilous than it is today,” Rumsfeld wrote in his 800-page memoir, scheduled for release on Tuesday.
Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials cited the threat posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as justification for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. No such weapons were found.
The former defense chief was a leading architect of the Iraq war. He was fired by President George W. Bush in 2006 with U.S. troops bogged down after 3-1/2 years of fighting in Iraq.
Rumsfeld’s book “Known and Unknown,” a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, covers his entire life, but more than half deals with his six years as Bush’s defense chief.
Speaking out for the first time since leaving office, Rumsfeld offers a vigorous explanation of his own thoughts and actions about the war and is making available on his website (www.rumsfeld.com) many previously classified or private documents, the Post reported.
Much of Rumsfeld’s explanation of what went wrong in the crucial first year of the occupation of Iraq stems from a pre-war failure to manage the post-war political transition when the State Department and Pentagon held vastly different views, the newspaper said.
Rumsfeld depicts Bush as presiding over a national security process that was marked by incoherent decision-making and policy drift, a detriment to the war effort, the Post said.
Rumsfeld suggests that Bush was at fault for not doing more to resolve disagreements among senior advisers.
Bush “did not always receive, and may not have insisted on, a timely consideration of his options before he made a decision, nor did he always receive effective implementation of the decisions he made,” Rumsfeld wrote.
Addressing charges that he failed to provide enough troops for the Iraq war, the former defense chief wrote: “In retrospect, there may have been times when more troops could have helped.”
But Rumsfeld insists that if senior military officers had reservations about the size of the invading force, they never informed him, the Post said.
In a lengthy section on the administration’s treatment of wartime detainees, Rumsfeld regrets not leaving office in May 2004, after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal erupted, The Washington Post said.
“Looking back, I see there are things the administration could have done differently and better with respect to wartime detention,” Rumsfeld acknowledges.
8 thoughts on “Rummy, in new book, defends Iraq war debacle”
If only his p*ss poor performance as Secretary of Defense, his second go around for the job during his career were his failings then it would be simple to evaluate his life’s work.
Rumsfeld is linked to the approval on “aspartame’ on the market an artificial sweetener linked to cancer and brain afflictions in both test animals and eventually humans over time. It should be pulled off the market, but its still going strong as it slowly, but surely toxifies those that take in this compound over time.
Rumsfeld is also linked with arming Saddam Husein’s regime with biological and chemical weapons that were use on the Kurds. Of course this was during the era when Saddam was our buddy and fighting in the Iranians in a war in which its estimated one million men, women and children died.
He’s even tenuously linked with the Pentagon destruction during 9/11 where the specific wing that was targeted by a missile and not an aircraft, an idea as sold to the public, that contained the DOD accounting records where it was stated a week before the attack that “one trillion dollars” could not be accounted for in the defense budget. No records or people are left to discuss the missing thousand billions or so since that was the wing that was targeted and summarily destroyed. Coincidence…I think not!
Now Don is selling books for twenty bucks a pop simply as an apologia for his crimes against humanity whether it’s in the form of FDA approved toxic chemicals, N-gas and chemicals for war and again only the gods know what else he’s been involved with in his lifetime costing the U.S. dearly in lives and treasure.
I also remember when the IED’s were blowing humvees to bits and GI’s were complaining about the fact they weren’t armored enough and he flippantly spouted something to the effect as follows:
“You go to war with the Army you have,” Rumsfeld replied, “not the Army you might want or wish to have.” …Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense in answer to a question from a serviceman. Needless to say his comment didn’t set well with the public and those with service members serving in Iraq.
Don is also responsible for the concept of outsourcing. In fact that’s his claim to fame in the corporate world being one of the first CEO’s to implement the concept allowing companies to improve the bottomline by cutting back on functions and shipping them to third world regions, such as call centers, routine administrative functions eventually entire manufacturing facilities etc.
During his tenure as SOD he’s responsible for building the government contractor base to as many as 20,000 questionable entities sucking on the defense budget with little oversight shunting regular military procurement and oversight out of the picture. It’s still the same with little oversight and accountability.
Only the gods know whatever else this mattoid has been involved with in his lifetime where the acquistion of money and power reigns supreme.
I’m not providing endless links concerning my referenced allegations. It’s readily available and will provide days of reading for the curious. The Wiki bio article will give readers an overview concerning his career and misguided involvement in so many costly boondoggles and failures when it comes to ineffective administration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld
*****
In 1971 Nixon was recorded saying about Rumsfeld “at least Rummy is tough enough” and “He’s a ruthless little bastard. You can be sure of that.”[16][17][18][19][20] …extract from Wiki
*****
I think this ‘admiring’ quote from “Tricky Dick” concerning this man says it all as to how valuable he has been to the movers and shakers that use this nation as their personal ‘facility’ for making beaucoup bucks at our expense; I.E., their unquestioning, captive tax slaves. / : |
Carl Nemo **==
Re: paragraph 4
“stated a week before the attack that “one trillion dollars” could not be accounted for in the defense budget.” …extract from post
should read:
stated one day before the 9/11 attack that “2.3 trillion dollars” could not be accounted for in the defense budget”
My apologies.
Surely after 9/11 most if not all Americans weren’t concentrating on this alleged ‘lost’ money.
Carl Nemo **==
I see… So the best and brightest of the Bush administration failed to predict post-war difficulties (Um…sovereign nations, in general, don’t take kindly to being bombed into near oblivion, invaded and occupied by an overwheming force, and have more than a hundred thoudand civilians maimed, tortured and killed), yet they were brilliant enough to predict that the Middle East would be “far more perilous” if they had left Saddam in power.
Funny how the German occupying force in France referred to the French Resistance as terrorists too.
Let them have all the rope they want Woody..
There is no sister ridin many a mile for these dirt bags..
I don’t know what is worse, his lies or that WaPo doesn’t bother to hold his feet to the fire on such statements. I guess they think we won’t remember clear back to 2003.
Well, there was that one General Shinseki that we intimidated the rest of the Joint Chiefs with by forcing him into early retirement, but he doesn’t count!
Being a war criminal must leave a bad taste in your mouth. Although for Rummy he probably regrets not being able to leave the US without the possibility of being indicted and tried. Or maybe he regrets not telling Junior to not incriminate himself and his cabinet as war criminals in Junior’s own book?
“Much of Rumsfeld’s explanation of what went wrong in the crucial first year of the occupation of Iraq stems from a pre-war failure to manage the post-war political transition when the State Department and Pentagon held vastly different views, the newspaper said.”
Not ‘the” pre-war failure….HIS pre-war failure!
This clown was TOLD…repeatedly… by high level advisers from both inside and outside of the Pentagon, that what he, Bush and Cheney were contemplating would eventually lead to chaos after the initial stages of the war were over.
And Rummy….in all of his ignorant arrogance….chose to repeatedly ignore that advice. So there never WAS a plan drawn up for what ultimately happened.
Clearly, Rumsfeld, along with the two other members of the “Asses of Evil” (Bush and Cheney) apparently forgot one of the very first lessons of war:
When you BREAK it….you OWN it.
You can always plead self incrimination by reason of insanity Rummy, Hack !
Comments are closed.