Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak "is behaving in a way that he understands that he will eventually depart" and that the crisis in Egypt is "probably best handled through private diplomacy." Rumsfeld, who has known Mubarak since 1975, told ABC's Good Morning America that the United States' interest in Egypt should be focused on "having that country evolve toward freer economic systems." Rumsfeld, who served as President George W. Bush's defense chief, also spoke about the United States's involvement in Iraq during his tenure and the issue of whether that country had weapons of mass destruction. "Everyone involved in that administration bears a responsibility for the conduct of our government's actions," said Rumsfeld. "I was a participant and we believed the intelligence was correct. It turns out it was not completely correct." Still, Rumsfeld argued Saddam Hussein led a "terribly vicious regime," and that "there's no question that the world is better off today than if Hussein were still in power. Millions of people in that country have been liberated."
In his memoir, Known and Unknown, out this week, Rumsfeld lashes out against former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell as well as Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Rumsfeld told Good Morning America that he and McCain "are not a good fit."
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