Donald Rumsfeld, who as Defence Secretary led the United States military in two wars, says his President George W Bush did not ask him whether invading Iraq was the right action, in his memoirs that are also critical of the former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
In his exhaustive book “Known and Unknown”, Mr. Rumsfeld is critical of many of his former colleagues and says he wanted to quit following the Abu Ghraib human rights scandal but his resignation was vetoed by the President.In the account that the Los Angeles Times describes as one about “shifting blame and settling scores”, Mr. Rumsfeld writes that Mr. Bush never asked him whether invading Iraq was the right course to take.
“While President Bush and I had many discussions about the war preparations, I do not recall his ever asking me if I thought going to war with Iraq was the right decision,” he writes. The President was the one charged with the tough choice to commit U.S. forces. “I did not speculate on the thought process that brought him to his ultimate, necessarily lonely decision,” reads the excerpt.
