Donald Rumsfeld, twice the Secretary of Defense, died on Wednesday at the age of 88. Given his role in the Iraq War, both in its conception and in how it was fought, it was inevitable that media reaction would be critical. On his MSNBC show, Ayman Mohyeldin, however, went much further, blaming him and the U.S. for the massive death and misery in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mohyeldin was following up with Pentagon correspondent Courtney Kube who took a more measured approach to Rumsfeld's career. She noted that under Gerald Ford, he was and still remains the youngest Defense Secretary in the country's history and also under George W. Bush, one of the oldest and that he helped people get out of the Pentagon on 9/11.
Kube did, however, criticize Rumsfeld for for the decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003:
KUBE: There are a lot of people who even worked with him and served with him, served with him here in the Pentagon who now acknowledge that, you know, going into Iraq, it had such a -- a -- an effect on the U.S. foreign policy, on U.S. national security, on the war in Afghanistan which we're seeing draw out right now and end right now, and there are a lot of people who served closely with Rumsfeld at the time who are saying and questioning why they went into Iraq back in 2003.
Whatever one thinks of the Rumsfeld or the Iraq War, no reasonable person can claim given the Iran-Iraq War, Desert Storm, and its post-war containment operations that everything was going just fine in that country prior to 2003, but that did not prevent Mohyeldin from trying:
MOHYELDIN: Yeah, and certainly it will raise a lot of Interesting questions as well in terms of the legacy of America in the Middle East because as you were mentioning there. Those two wars, people in Afghanistan and certainly in Iraq still reeling from those disastrous decisions. Hundreds of thousands of people killed, millions of refugees and two war-torn countries that 20 years later are still not fully functioning.
By including Afghanistan, Mohyeldin also somehow forgot to mention 9/11 and the Afghan Civil War which followed the Soviet-Afghan War.
Or maybe he didn't forget, but deliberately omitted them as this is the same journalist who described Iranian terrorist commander Qasem Soleimani as "complicated" and Chris Kyle, of American Sniper fame, as someone who went on "racist" "killing sprees."
But MSNBC wants Fox banned from military bases!
This kick-the-dead segment was sponsored by Expedia. Is this what they want to support?
Here is a transcript of the June 30 show:
MSNBC
Ayman Mohyeldin Reports
3:32 PM ET
COURTNEY KUBE: Then -- and then, of course, the U.S. moving into Afghanistan and going into Afghanistan there, the war there, but it was really the invasion of Iraq in March of 2003 that I think a lot of people will remember him for and his involvement in that. He was one of the people, one of the architects of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, one of the people who pushed the idea of weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam Hussein had those weapons of mass destruction, of course, years later it became very clear that that was not the case. He had a tumultuous time here in the Pentagon. He, of course, at the time was serving as George W. Bush's secretary of defense until late 2005, excuse me late 2006, when he was asked to resign and was replaced by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former CIA director. I've spoken to him, in failing health in recent days and we've been hearing about that. Last time I saw him was about two years ago, and he had had a couple of recent surgeries, and it was clear that his health was failing, but because of that I've been asking people, you know, who served with him, people in the military, the civilians who worked with him what they really would see as his legacy and I was surprised.
There are a lot of people who even worked with him and served with him, served with him here in the Pentagon who now acknowledge that, you know, going into Iraq, it had such a -- a -- an effect on the U.S. foreign policy, on U.S. national security, on the war in Afghanistan which we're seeing draw out right now and end right now, and there are a lot of people who served closely with Rumsfeld at the time who are saying and questioning why they went into Iraq back in 2003, Ayman, so certainly an historic figure. As you mentioned, controversial definitely to the end. I will say as someone who covered him here at the Pentagon, the briefings were always interesting. He was someone who loved to really engage in a back and forth with members of the press, and you would get your heart rate up when you were questioning Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld because you knew he was going to come back to you and you better have your facts ready and be prepared so, you know, Donald Rumsfeld passed away at age 88, Ayman.
AYMAN MOHYELDIN: Yeah, it certainly will raise a lot of Interesting questions as well in terms of the legacy of America in the Middle East because as you were mentioned there those two wars, people in Afghanistan and those in Iraq still reeling from those disastrous decisions. Hundreds of thousands of people killed, millions of refugees and two war-torn countries that are still not fully functioning.
