Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeldis an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the second oldestperson to have served as Secretary of Defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a three-term U.S. Congressman from Illinois, Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, Counsellor to the President, the United States Permanent...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth9 July 1932
CityEvanston, IL
CountryUnited States of America
What we are basically involved in is providing assistance and food and ammunition and liaison in a way that targeting should be more precise, ... These people have been fighting for ages. They know their own minds, and they are going to move when they see fit.
We're not running out of [fixed] targets. Afghanistan is.
The more troops you have, the more targets you have, and the more people you might get killed. The more troops you have, the more of an occupying power you are, the heavier footprint, the more force protection you need, the more logistics you need and the more intrusive you are on the people of that country.
It is important to go after the air defenses of the Taliban, and their aircraft, ... We are also targeting the command facilities of terrorist forces.
We have been targeting caves and tunnels and closing them up and getting a lot of secondary explosions, in some cases, when they were used for ammunition storage,
increase the number of special operations forces available for missions worldwide, while expanding their capabilities in some key areas.
It's not going to take years, and it's not going to take days. It'll take some months. And then we will go back to the president with our recommendations as to what we believe are the priorities and what needs to be done,
It's not an effort against the Afghan people, ... Indeed, we are providing humanitarian assistance.
not the first major battle, and certainly won't be the last.
Syria's been on the terrorist list for years,
They have to do it for themselves, ... There isn't an Iraqi that comes into this country and visits with me that doesn't say that. They know that. They know that they're the ones that are going to have to grab that country, and it's time.
They know where the bank accounts are, they know the names of the people who were trained, they know the sleeper cells that exist around the world,
I'm not going to talk about what we might or might not do, ... You can be absolutely certain we will not allow our aircraft to continue to be shot at with impunity. We intend to respond.
I'm encouraged. I think you'll find we will get additional forces,