Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (AFP) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asserted Sunday
that he did not press for the US-led invasion of Iraq, as public
disaffection for the US military operation there reaches new highs.
"I didn't advocate invasion," Rumsfeld told ABC television, when asked if he
would have advocated an invasion of Iraq if he had known that no weapons of
mass destruction would be found there.
The US Defense chief added: "I wasn't asked," when asked whether he
supported the March 2003 invasion.
Asked on ABC television's "This Week" program if he was trying to distance
himself after the fact from the controversial US decision to invade Iraq,
Rumsfeld replied: "Of course not. Of course not. I completely agreed with
the decision to go to war and said that a hundred times. Don't even suggest
that."
But Rumsfeld's insistence that he had not advocated an invasion of Iraq
appears to contradict several media reports, and at least one book by a
former White House couter-terrorism chief.
CBS News has reported, citing notes by Pentagon officials, that Rumsfeld
told his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq hours after the
September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York.
The notes, cited by CBS, quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted "best info fast.
Judge whether good enough to hit S.H. (Saddam Hussein)".
Former White House terrorism czar, Richard Clarke, said in his book "Against
all Enemies" that days after the September 11 attacks, Rumsfeld was pushing
for retaliatory strikes on Iraq, despite questions over Iraq's links to
Al-Qaeda.
Clarke suggests the idea took him so aback, he initally thought Rumsfeld was
joking.
"Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq," Clarke has said in
describing White House deliberations after the September 11 attacks.
In speeches prior to the 2003 invasion, Rumsfeld had said Iraq was a danger
that could not be ignored and that diplomacy and sanctions had been
unsuccessful against Saddam Hussein's regime.
"Iraq poses a threat to the security of our people," Rumsfeld said in a
January 2003 speech, adding "in the case of Iraq we are nearing the end of
the long road, and with every other option exhausted."
that he did not press for the US-led invasion of Iraq, as public
disaffection for the US military operation there reaches new highs.
"I didn't advocate invasion," Rumsfeld told ABC television, when asked if he
would have advocated an invasion of Iraq if he had known that no weapons of
mass destruction would be found there.
The US Defense chief added: "I wasn't asked," when asked whether he
supported the March 2003 invasion.
Asked on ABC television's "This Week" program if he was trying to distance
himself after the fact from the controversial US decision to invade Iraq,
Rumsfeld replied: "Of course not. Of course not. I completely agreed with
the decision to go to war and said that a hundred times. Don't even suggest
that."
But Rumsfeld's insistence that he had not advocated an invasion of Iraq
appears to contradict several media reports, and at least one book by a
former White House couter-terrorism chief.
CBS News has reported, citing notes by Pentagon officials, that Rumsfeld
told his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq hours after the
September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York.
The notes, cited by CBS, quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted "best info fast.
Judge whether good enough to hit S.H. (Saddam Hussein)".
Former White House terrorism czar, Richard Clarke, said in his book "Against
all Enemies" that days after the September 11 attacks, Rumsfeld was pushing
for retaliatory strikes on Iraq, despite questions over Iraq's links to
Al-Qaeda.
Clarke suggests the idea took him so aback, he initally thought Rumsfeld was
joking.
"Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq," Clarke has said in
describing White House deliberations after the September 11 attacks.
In speeches prior to the 2003 invasion, Rumsfeld had said Iraq was a danger
that could not be ignored and that diplomacy and sanctions had been
unsuccessful against Saddam Hussein's regime.
"Iraq poses a threat to the security of our people," Rumsfeld said in a
January 2003 speech, adding "in the case of Iraq we are nearing the end of
the long road, and with every other option exhausted."
