--- title: Verbatim description: 'The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic.' Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, claiming... canonical: https://time.com/3917722/verbatim-10/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-11T14:52:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:07:51.395Z article:section: World og:title: Verbatim og:description: 'The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic.' Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, claiming... og:url: https://time.com/3917722/verbatim-10/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Verbatim twitter:description: 'The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic.' Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, claiming... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Verbatim by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 11, 2015 2:52 PM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 11, 2015 2:52 PM CUT ‘The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic.’ Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, claiming he had reservations about U.S. plans for the country following the 2003 invasion $700,000 Amount that a New York City man says a fortune teller scammed him out of as he pursued a romantic interest with her aid 2,710 Number of calories in Red Lobster’s Create Your Own Combination meal using three shrimp dishes; that sum was the largest on the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s list of worst chain-restaurant meals of the year, and the combo also included more than 6,000 mg of sodium ‘I’M TIRED OF NEEDING TO BE LINKED TO A GUY.’ Ariana Grande, singer, criticizing those who often refer to her in terms of past, present or potential paramours ‘This really could have been a movie script.’ Andrew Cuomo, New York governor, describing the complex plan two convicted murderers used to escape from a maximum-security prison American Pharoah The horse became the first to win the Triple Crown since 1978 GOOD WEEK BAD WEEK American Airlines A woman in a wheelchair sued after she was forced to crawl onto a plane ‘THEY DESERVE TO BE TREATED LIKE WE ALL DESERVE TO BE TREATED–WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT.’ Malala Yousafzai, activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, calling on the leaders of Burma to end the persecution of the country’s Rohingya Muslims ‘I will have the last laugh.’ Jack Warner, former FIFA vice president, who has been charged in connection with the scandal buffeting soccer’s world governing body; he threatened an “avalanche” of secrets that will shame the organization further 32 Length, in feet, of a motorized replica killer whale designed to scare sea lions off docks in Oregon–it quickly capsized ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3917722/verbatim-10/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3917722/verbatim-10/"},"headline":"Verbatim","datePublished":"2015-06-11T14:52:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:07:51.395Z","description":"'The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic.' Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, claiming...","url":"https://time.com/3917722/verbatim-10/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3917722/verbatim-10/","name":"Verbatim"}}]}] ```