Richard L. Armitage, which was the official n. 2 at the State Department from 2001 to 2005, during the turbulent era of the attacks of 11 September and the beginning of the American retaliation wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, died on Sunday. He was 79 years old.The cause was a pulmonary embolism, Armitage International, a consultancy company that Mr. Armitage managed in Arlington, Virginia, in a note. The statement did not say where he died.Boat songwriting and with a shaved head, Mr. Armitage, a graduate at the Naval Academy who served in Vietnam, worked for three republican presidents in foreign policy and senior defense works, part of a crotter of decades of government officials who believed in a muscular American presence abroad.He was one of a group, led by Condoleezza Rice, who was cal...