Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense under former President George W. Bush, told The Daily Caller that President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s diplomacy, specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been “a failure.”
Watch:
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TheDC asked Rumfeld if President Barack Obama should have continued any Bush administration policies.
“Clearly there’s some things that have stayed the same — the Patriot Act and Guantanamo and military commissions and the like. There are some things that are being done quite differently, in my view, and I would certainly mention … how our diplomacy could be such a failure with respect to developing a status of forces agreement with Iraq,” he told TheDC at the American Spectator’s Robert L. Bartley annual dinner on Tuesday in Washington.
“We have ‘status of forces’ agreements all over the world with countries. And had our president and our secretary of state been leaning forward, working with the Iraqis, there’s no question we could have managed to arrange a proper arrangement between the United States military in our country and the Iraqis. The failure of diplomacy in Afghanistan is notable.”
Rumsfeld specifically expressed disappointment in the Obama administration’s treatment of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai before the Senate confirmed Ryan Crocker as U.S. Ambassador to his country on June 30, 2011.
“We now have a terrific ambassador there in Ryan Crocker. But for the preceding period, people spent their time criticizing President Karzai. He’s the president, he was elected by the Afghan people, it’s a tough job,” Rumsfeld said. (RELATED: Rumsfeld’s interview with TheDC’s Ginni Thomas)
“It’s a tribal country. They [are] not used to a central government. And it’s disturbing that our people seem to spend their time weakening him instead of strengthening him, instead of dealing with him. If you have things to say in private diplomacy, you say that, but you don’t say it in public. And I’ve been very disappointed in their diplomacy … I must say I think our diplomacy’s been failing.”