PanOrient News | Donald Rumsfled emphatically unmourned in Iraq and the Arab World

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Donald Rumsfled emphatically unmourned in Iraq and the Arab World

Friday, July 9, 2021

Donald Rumsfeld

By Fadwa Eyoun Soud

DAMASCUS: Almost none of the Iraqi and Arab media and people seem to have mourned the death of Donald Rumsfeld, the former US Secretary of Defense and "the architect of the two American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," who passed away last week.

The Iraqi people, almost unanimously, criticized his "crimes" against their country angrily. Social media saw arguments between a few who prayed for God's mercy on him and a much larger majority who were angry at his policies "that brought the situation in Iraq to where it is now."

Arab journalists and writers described him as a "petty war criminal."

Former Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi reportedly said, "usually the dead are remembered for their good deeds, but I wonder if Donald Rumsfeld had any good deed worth mentioning. His crimes could fill volumes. The curses of the bereaved Iraqis will accompany him to his grave until the Day of Judgment."

The Iraqi Nasnews quoted Saad Jabbar, an employee at the Ministry of Transport, who "does not feel sorry for the death of anyone in the occupying forces" because "they left us nothing but memories of the occupation and destruction of Iraq."

The death of Rumsfeld reminded Iraqis of the war that destroyed their country and brought "Shi'a Turban Rule" to Iraq.

On the other hand, Othman Al-Mukhtar, an Iraqi journalist, detailed particular war-related memories of such crimes as Abu Ghraib prison, Basra uranium, Fallujah's napalm, the Haditha massacre, and the like.

The Arabic RT website held Rumsfeld responsible for launching the military operation in Afghanistan in 2001 and the war on terrorism, which resulted in long years of insecurity.

Outside Iraq, Ali Saadeh, a Jordanian writer, and journalist wrote that Rumsfeld had a good relationship with the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the eighties. "Rumsfeld agreed at that time to provide the Iraqi army with advanced American weapons in its fight against Iran, but Rumsfeld turned against Saddam during the first Gulf War."

Under the heading "How do we remember Rumsfeld?" Ma'n Al-Bayari wrote on the Alarab website: "Only the family of former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld expressed good words concerning him upon his death last Wednesday at the age of eighty-eight.

The American Intercept described him as a "petty war criminal" and "vulgar."

Donald H. Rumsfeld served as the 21st Secretary of Defense from January 2001 to December 2006. Before assuming this post, the former Navy pilot had also served as the 13th Secretary of Defense, White House Chief of Staff, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, U.S. Congressman and chief executive officer of two Fortune 500 companies, according to the Y.S. Department of Defense. (PanOrient News)