Iraq war architect Rumsfeld dead at 88

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July 2, 2021

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Iraq war architect Rumsfeld dead at 88

Source: AFP | 00:07 UTC+8 July 2, 2021 |

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Donald Rumsfeld, the cocksure and unrepentant defense secretary who led the United States into war in Iraq and Afghanistan, has died, his family announced Wednesday. He was 88.

In charge of the US military for most of George W. Bush’s presidency, Rumsfeld was stubborn and brash, famously dismissing widespread looting after US troops captured Baghdad by quipping, “Stuff happens.”

For millions who took to the streets to denounce the war in Iraq, Rumsfeld and vice president Dick Cheney were emblematic of what was seen as excesses in Bush’s “war on terror,” including the indefinite detention of suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the abuse of Iraqis by US jailers at Abu Ghraib prison.

The former congressman’s brand of hawkish politics eventually fell from favor as politicians from both sides turned on “forever wars,” and the troops he first sent to Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks will make their final withdrawal weeks after his death.

Bush called his defense secretary, whom he defiantly kept in his cabinet until rival Democrats won control of Congress in 2006, “an exemplary public servant and a very good man.”

Rumsfeld had clamored to remove Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, pushing soon after the fall of Afghanistan’s Taliban to move into Iraq, where he suggested there were weapons of mass destruction.

Asked in 2002 about the lack of evidence, Rumsfeld gave perhaps his most memorable statement: “Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know.”

“We also know there are known unknowns — that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

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Iraq war architect Rumsfeld dead at 88

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