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Posted on 04/09/2003 6:00:27 PM PDT by kritikos
Q: Mr. Secretary, as these powerful images of the last three weeks have been broadcast out to the world, is it your sense, especially in the Arab-speaking world, that they have become convinced of the rightness of the cause that you are fighting this war for, or do you feel that this three-week campaign thus far has created many more people who want to come after Americans -- (pauses) -- well, I'll just stop there.
RUMSFELD: We have no evidence that the latter is happening. There's no question but that there are a number of, particularly television stations, as well as print, in that part of the world that have carried a message that was false. They've carried a message that tried to lead people in that part of the world to believe that we were fighting Iraq and the Iraqi people, as opposed to a vicious dictator -- that we were anti a religion, which is totally untrue.
But that's going to be counterbalanced with the faces of people who are free and the test is in the tasting. The United States is not going to stay in that country and occupy it. We have plenty of other things that our people like to do with their lives, and we don't make it a practice of going out and seeking someone else's wealth or real estate.
So, we'll do our job, we'll do it well, and we'll leave as that country is set on a path to guide its own future. We'll try to be helpful from a humanitarian standpoint, which we're already doing.
And, you know, truth ultimately finds it way to people's ears and eyes and hearts, and I don't worry about that over the long term. Does it make me sad to see television saying things that are flat not true and people printing things in that part of the world that's flat not true, children being taught things that are flat not true? Yes, it bothers me. But what can one do except to tell the truth, behave in a way that's consistent with our values -- and this country and the coalition has done that in this case. And there is, I am certain, among the Iraqi people a respect for the care and the precision that went into that bombing campaign. It was not a long air campaign. It didn't last for weeks. And there was minimal collateral damage -- unintended damage. And the preciseness of the targeting was respected such that people could go out on the streets of those towns during bombing raids, and -- unless they were connected to a military regime facility, unless they were -- except for those that -- if you think about it, that regime took a lot of care to put their weapons and their command and control in schools, mosques and hospitals, and they ought to be held accountable for it. And that's something that journalists embedded out there ought to be asking people, because it went on day after day after day.
Lies are what fueled the hatred of 9/11. Lies are what kept the Saddam regime in power. Lies are fueling the Arab hatred of anything American. Lies foment division and dissension in our own country.
Rumsfeld is great; I love hearing him speak. You followed him with great above-quoted words of your own.
Worth repeating them. Bump.
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