What Rumsfield wanted was a Congress of Tribal leaders to replace Saddam's government, but the Shiite Religious leaders OPPOSED such a Government and demanded elections. The reason for the difference was the Shiites knew they would win any election for they are the majority in Iraq, Rumsfield knew such a Shiite Congress would NOT submit to US imposed rules and thus opposes such elections.
The Sunni minority, which had supported Saddam, boycotted those first elections (and it was accused that the US occupation government manipulated the election results so the Shiites fell just share of an absolute Majority, the rest were the Sunni Arabs and the Kurds). Subsequent election the Sunni participated in.
What was quickly "forgotten" was the US did NOT want such elections, but the refusal of the Shiites to accept any other form of Government became to clear to deny. i.e. the Shiites forces the US to go with Elections, elections Rumsfield opposed for he preferred to from a government of Tribal leaders, that he could bribe and otherwise manipulate.
Thus Rumsfield has been consistent, he oppose Democracy after we took Iraq and thinks it was a mistake when it occurred under the US Occupation.
Paper from 2003 on Iraqi Tribes and how the US was trying to use them to rule Iraq:
http://www.cfr.org/iraq/iraq-role-tribes/p7681
Tribes were strengthen in the 1920s by the British, weakened by the Baath Party in the 1940s to 1970s, then Strengthen again by Saddam in the 1990s after the disaster of the Iraq-Iran War and then Desert Storm and then the subsequent embargo on things to and from Iraq. At the same time the main power of the Tribes, their control of farm land, decline as most Iraqis moved to urban areas.
Side note on tribes: The "Kham" is the lowest and most important part of a tribe, it is the collection of males that are related, through the male line, five generation. This has survived the best of the various sub divisions of the traditional tribes during the last 50-100 years. Males members of a Kham can number into the hundreds, but mostly less then 50 males. Given the tendency to marry cousins, these Khams can survive for generations for each generation ends up being decedents of the same Grand Fathers, let alone the same Great Great Grandfathers. Thus these Khams can last for Centuries.
The foundation of the tribe is referred to as the khams, which is the greater extended family. The family is linked by all male offspring who share the same great-great grandfather.
The lowest level of the structure is the bayt, which consists of a single extended family with members numbering in the hundreds.
A group of bayts form a clan, known as the fakdh. Each fakdh maintains its own chief, family name, and land that is relative to a specific village or town.
A cluster of clans constitute a tribal organization or 'ashira. The 'ashira enjoys a high level of unity primarily due to the relative power that its sheikh or the sheikh's bayt holds and due to the geographic proximity of the clans of which it is comprised.
A confederacy of tribes is classified as a qabila. Although the qabila is an alliance of several tribes, it is still regarded as a tribe.
http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/2/htmlIt was the tribal forces above the Kham level that Rumsfield wanted to use, but it was denied to him for while the members of the tribe still held their tribal membership important, they tended to hold their religious leaders almost as high (and in many cases higher). When the Shiite Leadership demanded elections, the Shiite Tribal leadership followed suit and refused to form a council of the tribes. Thus Rumsfield had to "Embrace" elections for that was the only way to get a local non occupation government for Iraq.
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