Donald Rumsfeld Reflects on Iraq War Casualties — Transcript

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1. 0:00Ford TV the world is
2. 0:03[Music]
3. 0:06thinking you and I both know a lot of
4. 0:09people who worked for Lyndon Johnson and
5. 0:11one thing they often say is the tough
6. 0:13thing for them is when someone comes to
7. 0:15them and says I lost my son in Vietnam
8. 0:18why did he die what would you say for
9. 0:20Iraq
10. 0:22yeah it is the hardest thing I I think
11. 0:25anyone who's in a position of
12. 0:26responsibility when when a conflict
13. 0:30occurs uh and you as Joyce and I would
14. 0:34go to the hospitals and meet with the
15. 0:36wounded whose lives are changed forever
16. 0:39uh meet with their families and and meet
17. 0:41with the families of those who who'd
18. 0:43been
19. 0:44killed you you we would think to
20. 0:47ourselves when going in what is it that
21. 0:51we could say or do that would help them
22. 0:54understand the the um appreciation that
23. 0:59that we and America have for the
24. 1:03sacrifice the the individual sacrifices
25. 1:06and the sacrifices of families as well
26. 1:09because they sacrifice and they serve um
27. 1:13and we would come out of those meetings
28. 1:15uh almost invariably
29. 1:18inspired not feeling that we had helped
30. 1:21them but feeling that they had helped
31. 1:24us the The Pride they have in their
32. 1:28service
33. 1:30the uh cohesion they feel with the units
34. 1:34they were in their desire to get back to
35. 1:36their
36. 1:37units um it it uh you you just could not
37. 1:41fail to come out of those meetings
38. 1:43inspired by the young men and
39. 1:47women the big difference between the
40. 1:50Vietnam War and the conflicts today is
41. 1:54that uh thanks to Milton fredman and
42. 1:58Richard Nixon and the Congress we have a
43. 2:01an all volunteer military every single
44. 2:04one of those people who serve our
45. 2:06country uh serve because they wanted to
46. 2:09serve they serve because they
47. 2:11consciously decided they wanted to raise
48. 2:13their hand and and and go and help
49. 2:16protect our country and and that
50. 2:19dedication and that patriotism and that
51. 2:22Pride that they feel uh is is so
52. 2:26powerful um now how does one answer that
53. 2:30I guess the answer is that they're
54. 2:32they're and I think what the Johnson
55. 2:34people say is they'll push us to tell
56. 2:36exactly what the sacrifice is made for
57. 2:39MH is that I mean does anyone ever do
58. 2:41that when you see them oh sure and what
59. 2:44do you say I mean World War II I assume
60. 2:46would be that's not hard but a war like
61. 2:50Iraq or Vietnam or something that's not
62. 2:52you know full you know Full Throttle
63. 2:55what do you
64. 2:57say a war that is Army IES against
65. 3:00navies Air Forces against Air Forces uh
66. 3:04that's clear that understandable it
67. 3:06starts and it ends it ended in World War
68. 3:10II on a on the USS Missouri the
69. 3:12battleship with a signing ceremony what
70. 3:15what we went through in the Cold War was
71. 3:17quite different it was many decades long
72. 3:19it was a ideological competition of
73. 3:22ideas and there was never going to be a
74. 3:23signing ceremony and there was never
75. 3:25going to be a signing Cy what we're in
76. 3:27today is much more like that it is a
77. 3:30longer period of time it's a marathon
78. 3:32not a Sprint it is a competition of
79. 3:35ideas but for whatever
80. 3:38reason we are hesitant and not skillful
81. 3:42in engaging in the competition of ideas
82. 3:46we we recognize that the overwhelming
83. 3:48majority of the Muslims on the face of
84. 3:50this Earth are fine people who who have
85. 3:52a religion that may be different from
86. 3:55Christianity or Judaism or other
87. 3:57religions but they are they are not
88. 3:59radical they're not terrorists they're
89. 4:01fine people and yet there's a a small
90. 4:04minority of Muslims that have engaged in
91. 4:08Terrorist acts that organized to do
92. 4:10those things and and we're we're
93. 4:13reluctant As Americans to to take up
94. 4:16that debate and and compete with those
95. 4:20ideas they're not reluctant they are out
96. 4:23recruiting they are out raising money
97. 4:25they are out uh organizing and they are
98. 4:28out planning attack tax against the
99. 4:31nation state concept because they have a
100. 4:34conviction that that it is their calling
101. 4:36to do
102. 4:38that so the fact that we aren't willing
103. 4:41to engage in that debate or or not
104. 4:44skillful at it or reluctant to do it
105. 4:47leaves people with a vagueness as to why
106. 4:50why people have to do things the
107. 4:53wonderful thing I've found with the men
108. 4:55and women in the armed forces is that
109. 4:57they are there whether they're
110. 5:00serving in Korea or in Bosnia or in Iraq
111. 5:03or
112. 5:04Afghanistan they know what they're doing
113. 5:07they understand it they're proud of what
114. 5:09they're doing and thanks to Modern
115. 5:12Communications and emails they're able
116. 5:14to communicate with their families and
117. 5:16their families end up having a sense of
118. 5:19what they're doing and why they're doing
119. 5:21it and and and when there's a loss of
120. 5:24life it is
121. 5:26heartbreaking when there's a loss of
122. 5:28limb it's
123. 5:30heartbreaking and yet you talk to those
124. 5:33families and you talk to those people
125. 5:35and they don't ask why was I there they
126. 5:39know why they were there and they're
127. 5:41proud that they were there and we are a
128. 5:43very fortunate country that that's for
129. 5:46sure