History won't forgive Donald Rumsfeld for his deceit and warmongering in Iraq

US defence secretary launched a war based on false premises that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths

US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld addressing US military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad in May 2004. Notorious as a centre of torture and extra-judicial killing during Saddam Hussein's regime, the abuses at the jail continued when it was taken over by the US. Picture: AP Photo/Jim MacMillan

Donald Rumsfeld’s name will forever be associated with the biggest military fiasco in US history, the 2003 invasion of Iraq in pursuit of non-existent weapons of mass destruction, alongside the widespread use of torture that has dogged America’s reputation ever since.

It is not just the poor decisions he made as US defence secretary for which Rumsfeld will be remembered, but also his efforts to cover up inconvenient facts that did not align with his version of reality.