Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not insult former President George W. Bush when he said recently that democracy was "unrealistic" in Iraq, former White House Chief of Staff John Sununu told
Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
"I don't think so," Sununu, who served President George H.W. Bush, told "Newsmax Prime" hosts J.D. Hayworth and Miranda Khan. " They understood each other."
"He was just talking about the fact that there are many countries in the world that really need a process to move towards democracy."
Rumsfeld, a chief tactician of the Iraq War, told
The Times of London over the weekend that President George W. Bush was wrong to push democracy on Baghdad and that the country's transition always seemed "unrealistic."
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He also blamed the current troubles in the region on President Barack Obama's unwillingness to confront the Islamic State.
"The system in the U.S. is a democracy, in which an educated electorate can elect and should elect its representatives," Sununu told Newsmax. "In some of those countries, the process of education has to be improved to a point where they understand what they're casting their votes for.
"Rummy was just talking about how that process has to play itself out before they get to the end-game."
Sununu's new memoir is
"The Quiet Man: The Indispensable Presidency of George H.W. Bush," published by Broadside Books.
He told Hayworth and Khan that he was not concerned about news reports about turmoil in former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's camp as he neared an announcement Monday on his seeking the 2016 presidential nomination.
"Look, shakeups happen all the time," Sununu said. "This is happening even before he announced.
"I don't know what's going on there, but I never get concerned about internal adjustments in any campaign. It's going to happen in virtually every campaign as you go on.
"I don't think I've ever been in a campaign, except maybe the '88 Bush campaign in which there were not adjustments made. I've seen adjustments made in three or four other campaigns," he added.
"A little less visible, a little less notable, a lot more quietly — but everybody's doing that."
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