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Rumsfeld reveals pre-war Iraq strike plan in memoir

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Rumsfeld just another in a long line following US policy of invade and pillage while shouting democracy. Get used to it, there'll be more to come.

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This guy is a crook and should be held liable along with the other liars for starting a war, helping to bankrupt a nation, and spilling so much blood.

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Aren't the dinosaurs dead? Rumsfeld, even the name is odious.

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@Sarge "To all the Rumsfeld haters here - the fact remains if ya'll had your way, most likely Saddam Hussein, his winsome sons, Chemical Ali, et al, would STILL be ruling Iraq with their iron fists from their many luxurious palaces."

Wouldn't be so sure of that. that comment is another example of the narrow minded approach that was taken then.

Whos to say if done properly there wouldn't have be UN approved and properly thought through military action.

Still makes me laugh watching clips of American solders on the ground in Iraqi think they had just done such a good job puzzled because the Iraqis didn't understand English words such as stop, etc. clueless!

Basically the Americans were largely clueless and the whole thing was an embarrassment which has taken a lot of time to mop up. They made it a whole lot harder by being so unaware. They had minimal plans of what to do or understood the makeup of the country or how it works. What an embarrassment.

The rest of the world was more against the American trigger happy way shoot (someone) first think later ( oh shot the wrong person), they weren't necessaries against military action if done with intelligence and real consensus.

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"suspected chemical weapons site"

oh that old story hey

we believe you...oh dear alot of people did...how sad for poor journalism

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If any such demonstration was needed, the sheer people power of Egypt illustrates that true change comes from within the country. The Iraq war was misguided, no amount of justification is going to change this.

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Go talk to the U.S. pilots who were shot at by Saddam's forces whilst they were patrolling the U.N. no-fly zones, or the Kuwaitis who were invaded, or the Iranians who had missiles fired at their cities.

Thank you, Sarge, for this classic example of effective political indoctrination. Now let's go talk to the people who used to live in a reasonable stable and functioning country once known as Iraq, but is now referred to the locals as ground zero for suicide bombers.

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Once again, Powell proves to be a failure.

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yabits: "... one dictator who posed no threat to the United States or his neighbors"

Go talk to the U.S. pilots who were shot at by Saddam's forces whilst they were patrolling the U.N. no-fly zones, or the Kuwaitis who were invaded, or the Iranians who had missiles fired at their cities.

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With Saddam in power, any uprising or "peaceful demonstrations" would have been met with mustard gas and mass killings.

Yeah, but a number of attempts were made on Saddam's life and he and his sons had a long and growing list of enemies among the Sunnis -- his own people.

Left leaning libs don't understand the fight until it is facing them

No. It's usually some deluded right-winger acting like Chicken Little and lying about the dangers being faced, and conning the country into war.

they will always cower at the thought of a strong military

Not quite. The thought of what people who are drunk and deluded with their own military prowess can do is something to be feared. (And that would describe the morally bankrupt people like Rumsfeld.)

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the_sicilian at 06:32 AM JST - 16th February. I don't blame Rumsfeld so much. With Saddam in power, any uprising or "peaceful demonstrations" would have been met with mustard gas and mass killings.

The facts are the failure of troops to find any chemical or biological weapons in months of trying suggest the administration exaggerated intelligence findings in order to win support for the war.

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I don't blame Rumsfeld so much. With Saddam in power, any uprising or "peaceful demonstrations" would have been met with mustard gas and mass killings. Tens of thousands of Kurds lost their life to him, and the people in the southern part of Iraq, in Basara, were also systematically killed because they wanted to get rid of Saddam and his sons.

Left leaning libs don't understand the fight until it is facing them, they will always cower at the thought of a strong military.

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You gotta love how the incompetent leave office, publish a book, and rake in more money than most of us ever will in a year.

If we roll back the clock you have to remember that Sarge's point of view was held by a lot of people. Hindsight is always 20/20. But yeah, what is the difference between one dictator or another? Are we back to the cold war dictum of "he's a SOB, but he's our SOB?" I would much rather have a democracy that is less than friendly than a dictatorship that was, just on principle. That may not be very practical; but I think that should be the ideal.

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I can't see how getting to one dictator who posed no threat to the United States or his neighbors was worth so many thousands of lives of US and coalition forces. Not to mention the many thousands more maimed and scarred for life, and the trillion-plus spent on a completely discretionary war.

It's simply crazy, but there are people who thought Saddam was worth it. And they shouldn't be trusted to run a push broom, much less a defense department.

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your beloved president doesn't have to deal with Saddam Hussein, his winsome sons, Chemical Ali, etc. Or would you rather he have to deal with them?

If Egypt and Tunisia are any sort of example, the people who actually live/work/die in a country are far better at bring about change then any foriegn army can do, with a lot less blood loss. Trillions of dollars spent on something that has been has been, relatively speaking, done free in other countries.

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To all the Rumsfeld haters here - the fact remains if ya'll had your way, most likely Saddam Hussein, his winsome sons, Chemical Ali, et al, would STILL be ruling Iraq with their iron fists from their many luxurious palaces.

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"Old men make the war, young men fight the war." Boycott this book.

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What crimes did he committ, and why hasn't he been arrested?

Sarge -- how about fraud? First, his whole justification for the Iraq war was phony, and he knew it. Nothing but window-dressing to justify his and Wolfowitz's neo-con agenda. Second, his "war plan" was a joke, as it basically stopped the day the actual combat fighting ended, and gave virtually no thought to securing the peace. Third, his complete lack of understanding of the post-war dynamics and the massive losses his incompetence brought on U.S. and partner forces.

Powell, who he critisizes, famously told Bush and Rumsfeld that the actual battle victory was only the first step -- that they'd better be prepared to manage Iraq after Sadam fell. And his warning fell on deaf ears.

Rumsfeld was nothing but a politcially astute chicken hawk, and how he sleeps at night amazes me.

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Seeing this article just disturbed a dormant yearning in me for this man and his cohorts to burn in hell.

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Can anyone find it in the heart to forgive Johnson and McNamara (who said he was sorry) and Bush and Rumsfeld? There are so many "boys" and "girls" who gave everything for their cause. This book is a way to draw attention that "mistakes were made" and those who died are the victims.

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"This guy is such a criminal"

What crimes did he committ, and why hasn't he been arrested?

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This guy is such a criminal that whoever ghost wrote his book should also have to go to jail.

He'll rot in hell, that's for sure.

Taka

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AuntyAmerican - "All that flag waving and unwarranted, sickening love of the military"

Mybe you should study History & the WORLD. Iraq is a free nation now. also many people in other countries wave their Flag WHY is it bad when we Americans do it? we were Military less in the 30's Remember what happen After!? calling the usa a "terrorist state" is absured.
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I remember when Powell gave that speech at the U.N. I said, "Well, welcome aboard, General Powell!"

"I hope he is tried and found guilty of the war crimes he committed"

The war crimes of supporting the liberation of Iraq? That's not gonna happen.

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A deplorable little man and a symbol of everything that is wrong with the United States. I hope he is tried and found guilty of the war crimes he committed and soon!

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You have to admit, he had some of the best press conferences:

Reporter: Can you tell us what the battle plan is (whatever area in Iraq)?

Rummy: What did I just tell you? I will not tell you what we are going to do, as it will kill our young men in harms way. (then the stare like the reporter is 3 years old).

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Americans were always quick to bring to trial other people, (see the Tokyo trial, where they hanged some Japanese officer for waterboarding) but somehow those rules never apply to them...

As the only world superpower the USA gets to make the rules; it come with the territiory. A bitter pill to swallow but there it is.

It isn't just Rumsfeld. America has been guilty of many actions, which, were they committed by any other (non-Western) nation, would be considered terrorist actions. And you can be sure the USA would have been shouting loudest about it, too. The USA is the biggest terrorist state in the world.

Perhaps it's like the old joke 'when you have a hammer everything you see is a nail'

All that flag waving and unwarranted, sickening love of the military...

The sooner they fall the better. I hope I'm still around to see it happen.

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The Rumster was a writer of post-it notes. Remember the "snowstorm of post-it notes" he produced every day while working for Bush et.al? I don't even want to read his book; we are still dealing with the mess he and his band left us with. Just go away and be rich and leave the rest of us a l o n e, Mr. R.

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Rumsfeld has writing skills? That is one of those things I didn't know I didn't know.

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This guy, Rumsfeld was an idiot, is an idiot, and will always be an idiot,even worse the George Bush who should have gotten rid of him much earlier in his administration. Rumsfeld has so much blood on his hands, and he should apologize to Admiral Shinseki too!

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“For whatever reason, the administration never made public these facts about an active WMD production facility run by terrorists in Iraq,”

Probably because it never existed except as a story made up for an excuse to illegally invade a sovereign nation. Or wait... where's the proof it existed, Rummy? :)

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Rums should just go away. Mean and heartless pathetic little man.

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So when will he be tried for the war crimes he committed.

Americans were always quick to bring to trial other people, (see the Tokyo trial, where they hanged some Japanese officer for waterboarding) but somehow those rules never apply to them...

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What we know about him and his actions should be enough to send him to jail. The unknown is anybody's guess, but could be frightening considering the known part.

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unrepentant blowhard. Known and known. No unknowns.

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Did he write this book to justify his many mistakes in the past?

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