Rumsfeld told Army commanders that they didn't have to stop the looting early in the Iraq war

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121504851.html

<snip>

Still, some of the direct pops that former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage takes at his former colleagues in the first edition of Prism, a new foreign policy magazine (Washington desperately needed another such journal), are interesting.

The early looting in Iraq that so devastated and demoralized the country? "Unit commanders were saying, 'What are our responsibilities? Tell us what to do. Should we stop this looting?' "Armitage recalled. "And Rumsfeld said no." (On the other hand, we recall similar looting in Panama City in 1989, when Colin Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.)

On another matter, many observers have tried to locate the precise meeting, the moment, when President Bush II made the final decision to invade Iraq. Armitage says they won't find it.

"Never to my knowledge," he told Prism, which is published by the military's National Defense University, "and I'm pretty sure I'm right on this, did the president ever sit around with his advisers and say, 'Should we do this or not?' He never did it."

Well, at least he didn't dither.

[Mari333]

1. Yes, and he will never see the inside of a prison for war crimes

seems like all of these stories about what the Bush admin did keep coming out and they will all skate.
sickening.

[Individualist]

3. That was my first thought as well.

[snagglepuss]

5. Exactly. nt

[Solly Mack]

2. Rumsfeld said ( at the time) "Stuff happens" & freedom is "untidy" AND

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/04/11/sprj.irq.pentagon/

"He also asserted the looting was not as bad as some television and newspaper reports have indicated and said there was no major crisis in Baghdad, the capital city, which lacks a central governing authority. The looting, he suggested, was "part of the price" for what the United States and Britain have called the liberation of Iraq."

I well remember

[sabra]

4. nice find, I remember that... I guess Rummy forgot to mention that

the unit leaders on the ground had concerns?

[Solly Mack]

6. More like he didn't care if they had concerns

[tanyev]

7. Of course there was no decision point.

They'd planned to invade Iraq before they ever got sworn in.

[chill_wind]

8. Also: SCOTUS: Rumsfeld Immune in Torture Suit

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/12/14/scotus-rummy-is-immune-in-torture-suit

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7232758&mesg_id=7232758

[dysfunctional press]

9. i wonder how many antiquities he and his buddies now have in their posessions?

:shrug:

[Gregorian]

10. We know. One by one, everything we said here comes true.

They looted, and the military was guarding the Ministry of Oil. What does that tell us? It was obvious.

I will never stop wanting justice. Why is it always Pinochet years before things happen? Maybe because it's hard to prove things. But maybe because the people who committed the crimes are on the same societal level as lawyers and judges.