Rumsfeld: ‘Unrealistic’ for Bush to pursue democracy in Iraq
Published June 09, 2015
FoxNews.com
Donald Rumsfeld, one of the leading architects of the Iraq war, said in a recent interview that then-President George W. Bush was unrealistic to pursue democracy in the country.
Rumsfeld, who served as Bush’s defense secretary from 2001 to 2006, made the comments in an interview with the Times of London.
“I’m not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories,” Rumsfeld said.
“The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic. I was concerned about it when I first heard those words.”
The comments are a departure from Rumsfeld’s robust public defense of the war during the Bush administration, and mark a rare break between him and the former president on foreign policy.
Since the 2003 invasion and the toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has held multiple elections. But most recently, majority Shiites have been accused of sidelining minority Sunnis, feeding tensions that were exploited by the Islamic State, a Sunni terror group.
Even as he voiced second thoughts about the U.S. goals in the Iraq war, Rumsfeld scolded western governments for their current failure to deal with Muslim extremists.
“The movement for a caliphate, the movement against nation states is central and fundamental. And no one’s talking about it,” he said.
In Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters have flocked to the region to join the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate. Rumsfeld told the Times that western leaders are refusing to even admit the nature of the threat.
“If leaders aren’t willing to do it, why the hell should a guy with a wife and kids in the community put himself at risk?” he asked, describing the fight ahead as “more like the Cold War” — won with ideas, not “bullets.”
Rumsfeld also accused President Obama of abandoning “America’s historic role in promoting and defending free societies.”
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