Carlson: “Iraq policy” not “Rumsfeld's fault” because he was just “executing policy that was dreamed up by other people”

Written by Kurt Donaldson

Published

On MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Tucker Carlson said problems with “Iraq policy” are not Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's “fault” because Rumsfeld was “executing policy that was dreamed up by other people.”

On the May 4 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC's The Situation, said problems with “Iraq policy” are not Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's “fault” because Rumsfeld was “executing policy that was dreamed up by other people.”

Carlson was discussing with host Joe Scarborough the stormy reception Rumsfeld received during a May 4 speech in Atlanta, where he was questioned by opponents of the Iraq war. When Scarborough asked Carlson if Rumsfeld should be “fired,” Carlson responded that Iraq policy is “not Rumsfeld's fault, in the end. He didn't dream up the invasion of Iraq.” Acknowledging only that Rumsfeld “showed bad judgment ... when he made these sort of light-hearted statements about the looting in Baghdad,” Carlson reiterated that, “from a macro point of view,” Iraq policy problems are “not his fault. He was executing policy that was dreamed up by other people.”

The functions of the Secretary of Defense, according to the Department of Defense's Organization and Functions Guidebook:

The Secretary of Defense is the principal defense policy advisor to the President and is responsible for the formulation of general defense policy and policy related to all matters of direct and primary concern to the DoD, and for the execution of approved policy. Under the direction of the President, the Secretary exercises authority, direction, and control over the Department of Defense.

From the May 4 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country:

SCARBOROUGH: Tucker Carlson, should Donald Rumsfeld be fired?

CARLSON: I think a lot of the hostility here is misplaced. You know, people are angry about our Iraq policy; I'm one of them; I'm angry about our Iraq policy. But that's not Rumsfeld's fault, in the end.

He didn't dream up the invasion of Iraq. He doesn't have the power to execute it. That's something the president did. That's also something members of Congress endorsed by their vote in the run-up to war. Those are the people you ought to be angry at.

I do think General [Barry] McCaffrey is absolutely right: He showed bad judgment, really, from day one, when he made these sort of light-hearted statements about the looting in Baghdad, the disorder that broke out, that we've never really gotten under control since then. He clearly has some judgment problems, but, from a macro point of view, this is not his fault. He was executing policy that was dreamed up by other people.