Iraq MPs welcome Rumsfeld departure

news.com.au

Iraqi lawmakers welcomed the resignation of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld overnight, saying they held him responsible for many of the war-torn country's ongoing woes.

Politicians were unanimous in their pleasure at seeing the controversial American politician, one of the architects of the US-led invasion of Iraq, move on.

"The resignation came late," said venerable Shiite politician Mahmud Othman. "He should have made it right after the scandal of Abu Ghraib in the Spring of 2004.

"He should have been held responsible back then because he was the number one man in charge of Iraq, and it might have been better if he'd handed in his resignation earlier," he added.

For nationalist Sunni Arab politician Saleh al-Mutlak, a vocal opponent of the US-led invasion, the resignation represents an "awakening of the American conscious".

"Everything that Rumsfeld and his rule did in Iraq was against ethics and against humanitarian attitudes, and it does not reflect the policies of a civilized country like the United States," he said from Dubai. Read more