Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday evening that he would not support sending U.S. troops into Libya.
“The people of those countries have to make their own choices,” Rumsfeld, a key architect of the Iraq war, said during an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan.
Rumsfeld explained that the invasion of Iraq was based on the belief that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction, whereas Libya abandoned their nuclear program.
The former Bush official also backed up the current administration’s hesitancy to establish a no-fly zone.
“I see all kinds of discussion about a no-fly zone right now, and I think [Defense Secretary Robert Gates] is correct that that’s a complicated thing to do. We had no-fly zones with the British and the French in Iraq for years. And our planes were shot at, over 2,000 times.”