Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Monday blasted President Barack Obama’s diplomacy, saying a “trained ape” could do a better job.
In an interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, Rumsfeld complained that relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai had gone “downhill like a toboggan” under the current president, even though the Bush administration’s ties with the Afghan leader had been “first rate.”
“Take for example that we have status of forces agreements probably with 100, 125 countries in the world,” the former secretary of defense ranted angrily. “This administration, the White House and the State Department, have failed to get a status of forces agreement.”
“A trained ape could get a status of forces agreement,” he added. “It does not take a genius.”
Rumsfeld said he also understood why Karzai backed Russia’s takeover of Crimea.
“I personally sympathize with him to some extent,” he explained. “Nobody likes to hear a foreign leader side with Putin on the Crimea the way he has. But I really think it’s understandable, given the terrible, terrible diplomacy that the United States has conducted with Afghanistan over the last several years.”
March 27, 2014 7:29 AM
