Former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld makes no apologies for his handling of the Iraq war in a new memoir, but says his biggest regret was not stepping down after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, US media reported Thursday. In "Known and Unknown," Rumsfeld - a lightning rod for criticism during his long tenure at the Pentagon - defends his handling of the war and his major policy decisions, according to advance copies obtained by the New York Times and the Washington Post.
But he said he wishes he had forced then-president George W. Bush to accept his resignation over the revelations of abuse by US military guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "Abu Ghraib and its follow-on effects, including the continued drum-beat of 'torture' maintained by partisan critics of the war and the president, became a damaging distraction," Rumsfeld writes.
"More than anything else I have failed to do, and even amid my pride in the many important things we did accomplish, I regret that I did not leave at that point." Rumsfeld, now 78, ended up staying in office for another two-and-a-half years until Bush sacked him following a Republican defeat in 2006 legislative elections in which the unpopular Iraq war played a major role. Rumsfeld argues, however, that the abuse at Abu Ghraib was the result of rogue soldiers and not policies he helped draft, a stance that rights groups have rejected.
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