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Wednesday 27 January 2016

“If it was a fact, it wouldn’t be called Intelligence.” Donald Rumsfeld on Iraq war


RT

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld came to promote his solitaire app, but when Stephen Colbert craftily brought up the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Rumsfeld's remarks left 'The Late Show' host and many others saying "Wow."

Launching his 'Churchill Solitaire' game, the 83-year-old Rumsfeld has been on a media tour where tough questions are not a prerequisite. Talking about the Iraq War, even as it looms like a cloud, can be a challenge when 2016 is saturated with politics and a fun application built to benefit charity is closer at hand. But Colbert made transitioning to the taboo topic look easy.

Colbert asked if Islamic State, or terrorist groups like it, holding western Iraq and eastern Syria was considered "a worst-case scenario, or a beyond-worse-case scenario" in 2002 and 2003 during the run-up to declaring war.

The "disorder in the entire region ... generally, people had not anticipated," Rumsfeld answered. 



That's when Colbert added that the top two presidential frontrunners from each party all say the Iraq War was a mistake. But with that, Colbert also said he wouldn't ask Rumsfeld the style of question some supporters of the war have answered in the last couple years. Though it has now become cookie-cutter, the "if you knew then what you know now, would you still have supported the war" angle of questioning was described as "unfair" by Colbert.
"You only knew then what you knew then, [and] you only know now what you know now," Colbert told Rumsfeld. "Our now is tomorrow's then."

Next, Colbert alluded to a famous answer Rumsfeld gave during a 2002 Department of Defense press conference in relation to the connection between weapons of mass destruction and Iraq. The quote is as follows: 


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