FOX 21/27 – WFXR Roanoke/WWCW Lynchburg News, WeatherRumsfeld promotes memoir in Roanoke

Rumsfeld promotes memoir in Roanoke

More than 400 people welcome Former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. To start off the evening, Rumsfeld shared his thoughts on the current state of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It is going to take them time to find their way. I have never been one to believe the United States could go in and build other countries.  It isn't possible for other nations to go in and make it all better for them," says Rumsfeld.

The real question though, in his opinion was the war worth the cost.

"The world is clearly a better place without Saddam Hussein and the brutal regime.  He killed hundreds of thousands of people; he used chemical weapons against the Kurds, his own people.  He defied 17 U.N. resolutions," says Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld even touched on the disagreements between the Department of Defense, State Department and the National Security Council.

"It seems to me in large measure it isn't it is difference of perspective difference of views, difference of positions and that is fair," says Rumsfeld.

However, there was on answer that got quite the reaction. That was the impact the defense budget has on the climbing debt.

"It is not a result of the defense establishment. You could abolish the defense department and you wouldn't make a dent in that debt," says Rumsfeld.

It was answers like that, which gave people there a first hand look into his job as the former secretary of defense.