Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld died Tuesday at the age of 88, days before birthday, family members said Wednesday, USA Today reports.  Rumsfeld was Defense Secretary under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006, and he was a principle proponent for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Rumsfeld arrived in Washington, DC during the Nixon Administration, eventually rising to a position of Counselor to the President before taking the job of US Ambassador to NATO in February 1973.  When Nixon resigned, Rumsfeld ultimately became Gerald Ford’s Chief of Staff and then Secretary of Defense.

A former Navy pilot, Rumsfeld led the Pentagon on the day of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  In the wake of the attacks, Rumsfeld pushed for attacks on Iraq’s leader Saddam Hussein, falsely believing Hussein had something to do with the al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as another plane hijacking. 

Even as troops hunted for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, Rumsfeld and other neo-conservatives pushed for the US to invade Iraq, continuing to claim a false link between Hussein and al Qaeda.

When questioned about why the Bush administration would push to invade Iraq when troops were ill-supplied and in need of materials like up-armored Humvees, Rumsfeld replied,  “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”