Rumsfeld Iraq Quotes & Sayings

We know where they are [Iraq's weapons of mass destruction]. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat. — Donald Rumsfeld

And then, of course, Bush won reelection, with everything out there, all of our complaints, all of the issues, all of the troubles with Iraq. So where are we? Bush certainly sees himself as having been given an endorsement. He was asked about accountability in an interview, about why Rumsfeld, Rice, and Wolfowitz have been promoted, these people who led us into the debacle in Iraq. Bush said there was accountability - it was the election. So there we are. — Seymour Hersh

No terror state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. — Donald Rumsfeld

I don't think we'll discover anything, myself. I think what will happen is we'll discover people who will tell us where to go find it. It is not like a treasure hunt where you just runaround looking everywhere hoping you find something. I just don't think that's going to happen. The inspectors didn't find anything, and I doubt that we will. What we will do is find the people who will tell us. — Donald Rumsfeld

What is the value of having millions of people in Iraq not having a repressive regime? What is the value of having the Iraqi regime not shooting at UK and US aircraft almost every day? What is the value of the Iraqis having a free press? What is the value of the foreign minister of Iraq going to Paris, calling for an end of the Gadhafi regime and citing Iraq as a model, as an example, that in fact a freer political system can exist in that part of the world? — Donald Rumsfeld

We are in the process of trying to liberate that country. And at the moment where the war ends and the coalition forces occupy the areas where those capabilities - chemical and biological weapons - are likely to be, to the extent they haven't been moved out of the country, it obviously is important to find them. — Donald Rumsfeld

An institution that ... would permit Iraq, a terrorist state that refuses to disarm, to become soon the chair of the United Nations Commission on Disarmament, and which recently elected Libya - a terrorist state - to chair the United Nations Commission on Human Rights of all things, seems not to be even struggling to regain credibility. That these acts of irresponsibility could happen now, at this moment in history, is breathtaking. — Donald Rumsfeld

I believe the American people spoke loud and clear to the Bush Administration in yesterday's election that they disapprove of the current direction in the war in Iraq. As a result, the President wasted no time in dumping Secretary Rumsfeld. — Jim Clyburn

It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months. — Donald Rumsfeld

I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won't last any longer than that. — Donald Rumsfeld

The dead-enders are still with us, those remnants of the defeated regimes who'll go on fighting long after their cause is lost. — Donald Rumsfeld

Any country on the face of the Earth with an active intelligence program knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. — Donald Rumsfeld

The coalition did not act in Iraq because we had discovered dramatic new evidence of Iraq's pursuit. We acted because we saw the evidence in a dramatic new light - through the prism of our experience on 9/11. — Donald Rumsfeld

Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. — Donald Rumsfeld

I think you can be an enemy of Saddam Hussein even if Donald Rumsfeld is also an enemy of Saddam Hussein. — Adam Michnik

There are people who in large measure have information that we need ... so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country. — Donald Rumsfeld

Because the script was written referring not to Iraq as it was, but to a fantasy Iraq as Rumsfeld, Rice, and Bush et al. wanted it to be, or dreamt it to be, or were promised by their pet Iraqis-in-exile it would be. They expected to find a unified state like Japan in 1945. Instead, they found a perpetual civil war among majority Shi'a Arabs, minority Sunni Arabs, and Kurds. Saddam Hussein - a Sunni - had imposed a brutal peace on the country, but with him gone, the civil war reheated, and now it's ... erupted, and the CPA is embroiled. When you're in control, neutrality isn't possible. — David Mitchell

Within a week, or a month, Saddam could give his WMD to al-Qaeda. — Donald Rumsfeld

If I look at the really important questions in [Middle East] region, I see Iran, where there is a strong desire for a freer society and where people are repressed by a small group of ayatollahs. I see Syria, where we can see a similar desire of the people to be free. These two countries fund Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations and are hurting our efforts in Afghanistan and have been extremely harmful in Iraq. Then I also see large, important countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. — Donald Rumsfeld

Five days or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last longer. — Donald Rumsfeld

When Rumsfeld gets up on television and says we have definitive intelligence that al Qaeda is working with Iraq, how is an ordinary citizen supposed to react? They won't tell you the evidence, and when anyone asks, they say, 'Well, you know: It's secret.' — Noam Chomsky

They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer. — Donald Rumsfeld

A few ... critics are the only people I ever heard use the phrase 'imminent threat.' I didn't, the president didn't. — Donald Rumsfeld

When there happens to be a weapon of mass destruction suspect site in an area that we occupy and if people have time, they'll look at it. — Donald Rumsfeld

No. That's someone else's business. Quagmire is - I don't do quagmires. — Donald Rumsfeld

I'm glad you asked. It has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil. — Donald Rumsfeld

We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad. — Donald Rumsfeld

As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time. Since the Iraq conflict began, the Army has been pressing ahead to produce the armor necessary at a rate that they believe
it's a greatly expanded rate from what existed previously, but a rate that they believe is the rate that is all that can be accomplished at this moment. — Donald Rumsfeld

I don't know anybody that I can think of who has contended that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons. — Donald Rumsfeld

According to CNN, Donald Rumsfeld said the war in Iraq did not go according to plan. And President Bush said, 'What? We had a plan?' — Jay Leno

The United States, as all you know, did not come to Iraq for oil, not to occupy. We came here only to help. — Donald Rumsfeld

I am not going to give you a number for it because it's not my business to do intelligent work. — Donald Rumsfeld

I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons. — Donald Rumsfeld