“In an April 11 [2003] press conference, where his remarks were interspersed with slides of cheerful GIs in company with happy Iraqis, he [Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld] infamously exclaimed, ‘Stuff happens,’ citing the American urban riots of the 1960s as precedent. The main fault, he made clear, lay with the media. ‘In terms of what’s going on in that country, it is a fundamental misunderstanding to see those images over, and over, and over again of some boy walking out with a vase and say, *Oh, my goodness, you didn’t have a plan.* That’s nonsense. They [the U.S. military on the ground] know what they’re doing, and they’re doing a terrific job.’ “
– Andrew Cockburn, Rumsfeld, Page 182