【Compiler/Observer Network Liu Chenghui】
"Don't mourn for the minister of defense, mourn the victims he killed."
"He killed so many people that he couldn't count them"
"He wears a mask of confidence and plays tricks of a liar"
After the death of former US Defense Secretary Rumsfeld on the 30th, the US "Beast Daily" published an article by Spencer Ackerman, a columnist in the field of national security, denouncing the defense minister who led the Iraq War and the Afghan War as a murderer who killed 400,000 people, and during his reign, hundreds of thousands of people in the world were plunged into violence and terror, but he escaped punishment.
The Daily Beast: Rumsfeld, the murderer who killed 400,000 people, died peacefully
"The only unfortunate thing is that Rumsfeld did not die in An Iraqi prison." In the article, Ackerman attacked the "war crimes" of Rumsfeld's tenure in sharp terms: "The number of people he killed is difficult to calculate precisely... We can't know the numbers of all the victims, let alone their names. ”
Still, the article cites research data pointing out that the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during Rumsfeld's presidency claimed more than 400,000 lives, and that this figure is "almost certainly" grossly underestimated.
In 2018, some of the information collected by Brown University's Costs of War Project in the United States can be used as a basis for estimates.
According to Neda C. Crawford, chair of Brown University's political science department, the war in Afghanistan at the time claimed about 147,000 lives, including 38,480 civilians; 58,596 Afghan soldiers and police officers (comparable to the number of U.S. troops killed in Vietnam); and 2,401 U.S. servicemen.
Crawford's data also show that the death toll from the Iraq war is conservatively estimated to be between about 267,000 and 295,000. This is almost certainly a grossly underestimated figure. These include between 182,000 and 204,000 civilians; more than 41,000 Iraqi police and soldiers, and 4,550 U.S. military personnel. As the driving force behind the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Rumsfeld and then Vice President Cheney and even President Bush were responsible for these deaths.
In addition to the casualties of the war, Ackerman also exposed Rumsfeld's indifference to the suffering of others, which once again highlighted his cruelty.
The article mentioned that someone once revealed to Rumsfeld that inmates in Guantanamo Prison in the United States were often tortured for hours. But Rumsfeld shrugged indifferently—"I still have to stand for 8 to 10 hours a day." ”
Rumsfeld's 2004 visit to Baghdad under U.S. occupation (Credited from Twitter)
At a news conference, when asked how the U.S. military could provide security for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, Rumsfeld sneered and said, "Ah, peacekeeping? The U.S. military never does this kind of thing. ”
In 2004, when some U.S. soldiers preparing for the mission wanted to strengthen vehicle protection to avoid being hit by rockets, Rumsfeld bluntly said: "The army is used to fight, soldiers are not important, what is important is to win the war." ”
The article described him as wearing a mask of self-confidence and playing the tricks of a liar. When the Iraq War was launched in 2003, he was confident that the U.S. military would not face organized resistance in Iraq, but in the end the United States fell into the Iraqi "swamp."
Even so, Rumsfeld, who is good at manipulating public opinion, has never taken any responsibility for what he has done, and he has even received praise from some American media. In a memoir, Rumsfeld tells only why he was right and why what he did was good.
Announcing Rumsfeld's death, his family commented in a statement that "he will be remembered by history for his extraordinary achievements during his 6-year administration." But in Ackerman's view, "it is painful that, unlike those who did not know the names of the dead, his name will be remembered, even if it is notorious." ”
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.