“At the Pentagon, [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld dismissed the looting [in Baghdad] at a briefing on April 11 [2003] with his now-infamous phrase, ‘stuff happens,’ and publicly the [Bush] administration took the position that disorder was to be expected.” – Elisabeth Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice: An American Life, Page 213 […]
Category: quotes
4/11/2003
In Iraq, after troops entered Baghdad on April 9, 2003, “Looting on a massive scale broke out, but U.S. forces did not attempt to stop it. When reporters asked about the escalating level of violence and chaos in Baghdad [on April 11, 2003], Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made his now famous comment: ‘Freedom is […]
4/11/2003
“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 […]
4/11/2003
In Iraq, “when looting first broke out on April 9 [2003], there were indeed tanks stationed on the bridges over the river Tigris, which divides east and west Baghdad. As a result, potential looters were confined to the eastern side for that day, and the next. West Baghdad remained relatively peaceful and secure. On April […]
4/11/2003
In response to the rampant looting taking place in Baghdad, Iraq, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, on April 11, 2003: ” ‘You cannot do everything instantaneously… It’s untidy. And freedom’s untidy. And free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They’re also free to live their lives and […]
4/10/2003
On April 10, 2003, former Reagan official and former Donald Rumsfeld Aide Ken Adelman “published an op-ed article in The Washington Post headlined, ‘Cakewalk Revisited,’ more or less gloating over what appeared to be the quick victory, and reminding readers that 14 months earlier he had written that war [with Iraq] would be a ‘cakewalk.’ […]
4/10/2003
From The Washington Post on April 10, 2003: “Throughout the Arab world also, many were happy to see the end of Saddam Hussein but at the same time were distrustful of the American occupation [of Iraq]. ‘Please, America must hear our voices,’ pleaded Diaa Rashwan, a political scientist at Cairo’s Ahram Center for Political and […]
4/10/2003
After the close of the ground war in Iraq, Commander of Coalition Forces “General [Tommy] Franks had ordered Iraqi troops on April 10 [2003] to ‘remain in uniform at all times. Maintain unit integrity and good order and discipline in your units.’ But those plans had not taken into account the harsh reality of life […]
4/10/2003
“Eager to encourage the emergence of pro-American Muslim leaders in Iraq, the CIA arranged in early April 2003 for a moderate Shiite cleric, Abd al-Majid al-Kho’i, to fly into Iraq from his exile in London. …the agency believed he could be a stabilizing influence in the Shiite community. The decision to fly him into Iraq […]
4/10/2003
In Iraq, on April 10, 2003, “One Marine officer standing on a tank at a checkpoint in eastern Baghdad said that the locals had repeatedly asked him why his unit had done nothing to stop the rampant looting; he explained that he had no orders to do so. ‘I tell them the truth,’ the officer […]