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 […]
Category: quotes
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 […]
4/11/2003
When asked how he felt about people questioning his war plans, President George W. Bush replied: “I don’t take anything personally. I committed our troops because I believe that Saddam Hussein and his regime posed a threat to the American people, posed a threat to anybody who loves freedom. We will achieve that objective. And at […]
4/11/2003
“The U.S. Army, ordered to stand aside, watched as the national infrastructure [in Iraq] was carried away, a turn of events shrugged off by [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld with the explanation [on April 11, 2003, that] ‘Freedom’s untidy…Stuff happens.’ While the Army was watching the looters it was not watching the vast Iraqi arms […]
4/11/2003
“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 […]
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 […]