U.S. troops must defeat enemy in Iraq: Rumsfeld

~snip~

"The enemy must be defeated," the Department of Defense Web site quoted Rumsfeld as telling Marines and soldiers at Al Asad air base in western Anbar province on Saturday.

"General (John) Abizaid (U.S. Central Command chief) said: "We can certainly walk away from this enemy, but they will not walk away from us,'" Rumsfeld said

~snip~

"Because this conflict is new and unfamiliar and complex, it is understandable that there will be differences about the direction our country should take," Rumsfeld told the troops.

"But we ought not confuse the political debate that takes place at home with a wavering of support or appreciation for your service or your achievements."

more: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2006-12-10T114048Z_01_N09314243_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-RUMSFELD.xml

And why are we paying him to fly anywhere?

Who's Paying for Rummy's Final Show?

I have a short, direct question. Don Rumsfeld's shameful tenure as Defense Secretary comes to an end a week from Monday.

Meanwhile, he jaunts off on a "secret trip" to Baghdad this weekend for what's being billed as personal farewell to the troops. We know he's not conducting any real government business. If he wanted to personally thank "his" generals, he could have signed onto to a cheapo Web teleconference.

more:http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15

...but it's safe enough for Rummy?:rofl:

if Rummy were to fall victim to a sniper's bullet in Iraq, he wouldn't be able to testify under oath come January.

;):hi:

us.

How many Iraqis have tried to attack us here?

Inquiring minds want to know, Gen.

Good luck defeating it.

they are the enemy? Could it be that the enemy anyone that tries tries to prevent the imperialistic, warmongering PNAC from using American troops and resources from conquering their sovereign country?

Must be too complex for the little minds of us American people to understand, huh?

PNAC Rumsfeld and his PNAC cohorts that got us into this war will never admit that their idiotic, misguided philosophy and the subsequent policies that grew out of this philosophy is just flat out wrong.

The PNAC is an organization of lunatic, quasi-nazi war criminals, and they should have been convicted and sent to prison by now.

The neocons are looking around to find a scapegoat.

If they can't use Clinton, maybe they'll try using the troops... that is, blame the military. Oh, they'll be careful to not blame "our brave American troops", but they'll just say that the military just wasn't up to the challenge.

It's a subtext in the revisionist view of Vietnam.

Remember when we were told by the POTUS we would be greeted as liberators?

Why are people still shooting at us in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Yet it was ready enough to launch two wars with. Just wait for them to return to their early claims of the Clinton military not being up to par, so that's why we couldn't win.

WE are the enemy in Iraq. It's that simple.

Now for the rest of the scum. Unlike you, some of them won't leave, so we'll have to impeach them.

Hello! Anybody home?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061210/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Rumsfeld bids farewell to GIs in Iraq

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer 34 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld paid a surprise visit to Iraq over the weekend and said American forces should not quit the war until the enemy is defeated.

Just days after a U.S. bipartisan commission called the situation here "grave and deteriorating" and called for a major shift in U.S. government policy, Rumsfeld showed no sign on Saturday of backing down from his long-standing position that insurgent groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq must be crushed.

"We feel great urgency to protect the American people from another 9/11 or a 9/11 times two or three. At the same time, we need to have the patience to see this task through to success. The consequences of failure are unacceptable," Rumsfeld told more than 1,200 soldiers and Marines at Al-Asad, a sprawling air base in Anbar province, the large area of western Iraq that is an insurgent stronghold. "The enemy must be defeated."

Rumsfeld, whose tenure at the Pentagon came under criticism in the Iraq Study Group report, was continuing to meet with U.S. troops in Iraq on Sunday, the military said.

At least 2,930 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, many in and around Baghdad, and in hard-hit Anbar cities such as Fallujah and Ramadi.........

An ego-boosting perk for Rummy, killer of American soldiers, doesn't seem like it should be tax-payer funded.