Jon Stewart finally nails Donald Rumsfeld on Iraq, says it 'felt strangely hollow'

Jon Stewart nails Donald Rumsfeld on Iraq, is not satisfied

(Image credit: The Daily Show)

published 12 June 2015

With just a month and a half left at The Daily Show, Jon Stewart is taking care of old business. One of his stated regrets from his long tenure is that in a 2011 interview, he failed to get former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to atone for pushing America into war with Iraq. But Rumsfeld just gave him an opening, telling The Times of London that he was always skeptical of bringing democracy to Iraq — or, as he later tried to clarify to Fox News, giving Iraqis the impression that the U.S. was trying to impose U.S.-style democracy on them.

Well, Stewart and his crack team of video archivists got Rumsfeld's number, and Stewart finally nailed him on making then what he now calls a mistake. "I never thought I'd say this, but we got you Donald Rumsfeld, we got you," Stewart said to fireworks and brass-band music. Then, after a moment: "Well, that felt strangely hollow."

"If you can get one of these guys to admit their mistakes, you may have a moment of self-satisfaction and catharsis, but it doesn't mitigate the horrible consequences of those decisions nor does it stop the next guy from repeating those mistakes," Stewart said, after a long disquisition on Rumsfeld and his Vietnam-era predecessor Robert McNamara. But Stewart is an optimist, so he had a plea for future interviewers deciding between the futility of trying to hold war-starters accountable or just letting them float peacefully on an ice floe in the Arctic: "Please, never stop trying anyway, because there's always hope that one day they'll think, just for a second — and that second will be enough time for us to shove these motherf—ers onto that ice floe." Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.