Ex-US Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is dead: Warmonger or statesman?

Former US Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has died at the age of 88. He was a driving force behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and has received much criticism. For many, however, he was a real statesman.

For some, Donald Rumsfeld was one of the best defense ministers in the United States, for others he was just a warmonger. As head of the Pentagon under George W. Bush, Rumsfeld was largely responsible for two wars: the invasion of the Americans in Afghanistan – as a result of the 9/11 attacks. And in 2003 the US invasion of Iraq – with the aim of overthrowing the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The US government officially justified the invasion with the existence of weapons of mass destruction, but they were never found. Years later – in 2016 – Rumsfeld justified the military operation on the Stephen Colbert Late Show.

The Iraqis have used chemical weapons against their neighbors, the Iranians, and against their own people, the Kurds. Therefore, it seemed as if President Bush had made the right decision based on the intelligence available. In retrospect, we did not find any large quantities of chemical or biological weapons.

German ancestors

Rumsfeld came from the Midwest, from Chicago. His great-grandfather – Johann Heinrich Rumsfeld – immigrated to the USA from Lower Saxony in the 1870s. After a few years in the US Navy, Rumsfeld came to Washington at 25, and was elected to Congress at 30.

Under President Gerald Ford, he was appointed Secretary of Defense as early as 1975 – the youngest Pentagon chief in US history. He later moved into the private sector until he was reappointed Secretary of Defense in 2001 by Bush.

Criticism of approval of brutal interrogation methods

Rumsfeld was heavily criticized for allowing mistreatment and brutal interrogation methods both in the Abu Ghraib prison camp in Iraq and in Guantanamo in Cuba. On the 2006 Larry King talk show, Rumsfeld named Guantanamo an interesting problem with a bad rap.

It is an extremely well-run, professional, decent prison. The prisoners there are treated in an absolutely appropriate and humane manner by our soldiers.

Rumsfeld was also controversial on a human level. Employees called his tone rude and often high-handed. The Republican was famous for his quibbles with which he tried to justify his actions. “There are things we know we know and there are things we know we don’t know,” he said in 2002 during a press conference at the White House.

As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq claimed more and more victims, Rumsfeld was fired by George W. Bush in 2006. After his death, Bush paid tribute to his Secretary of Defense as a man “of intelligence, integrity, and almost inexhaustible energy.” Ronald Rumsfeld died with his family on his estate in Taos, New Mexico. He was 88 years old.