Updated
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Baghdad, Iraq.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sought to show U.S. support for Iraq’s new leadership on Wednesday, making a surprise visit to Baghdad just days after Shi’ite politician Jawad al-Maliki was chosen as prime minister.
Rumsfeld swooped into the capital aboard a military cargo plane for his first visit to Iraq in 2006.
Secretary Rumsfeld’s trip appears to have two purposes: show support to Iraq’s new leadership and let our military men and women know that he is staying put in spite of the demands of a handful of retired generals that he resign.
Update: Condoleezza Rice is also in Baghdad to meet with the new Iraqi leaders.
Way to go Rummy ! rub it right in the face of those leftist ex Gen,s….
Yes indeed, let’s create an atmosphere within the military that not only ignores the wisdom and expertise of the military leadership, but causes quite a few generals to then speak out in protest in an unprecedented fashion, and then clean it all up with a PR move. That should work.
I don’t really like to jump onto the bandwagon here, but does anyone really believe that Rumsfeld had any clue what we were getting into?
What’s wrong mantis?…your BDS causing insomnia, or is that dementia…”03:25″? Something with “ia” on the end I’m sure.
Whatever mantis might think of Rumsfeld, which I am sure I don’t share, the solution to this war is not getting rid of him. This war, whether some like it or not, has to be fought to the end and won. If you cut and run now, like we did in Vietnam, then we, and our allies, will suffer the consequences for a long time. An example: Kennedy is credited for his excellent leadership during the Cuban missile crisis. I don’t question that but the crisis was something he brought upon himself. When he took office he had an option to kill of continue the plan for the invasion of Cuba that the Eisenhower administration was contemplating. He chose to follow it with the “flawless” strategic guidance of the CIA. When things started going wrong, mainly because the site of the landing was a trap for the invaders, he backed down when he should have continued. It was going to be blamed on the US anyways so might as well some benefit from it. Instead he chose to abandon the invaders and sent the wrong signal to commies. Nixon got us out of VIetnam to please the leftists at home, General Giap (commander of the North Vietnamese Army) acknowledged that it was only within the US itself that they were able to beat us, and we got Angola, Iran, Nicaragua… etc to account for that. Of course, we musn’t forget Carter’s great contribution to that.
Ahhh Mantis
The generals are the ones undermining the military expertise and wisdom and morale.
Yes He knew what we were getting into and was accurate in the prediction of weeks to defeat the Iraqi military! the war against terrorists was stated to be fought over a period of years, and that is what is happening! so you may think its a PR move and you may be right.but so what?
Mantis,
No classes this morning or was it ten cent beers last night?
You are showing your age in the way that you are grasping at straws. Out of the hundreds of generals, six with political and monetary motivations contradict what they’ve said for years on the record to the delight of anyone who is looking for a way to assuage their cognitive dissonance and you are one of the first in line.
You need to put a disclaimer after each of your comments — “college student, brain still in development”.
It’s going to be interesting to see how your views change once you make it out into the real world. I see it with 1L’s and 2L’s all of the time.
Until then, I’m just going to ignore you.
And, oh yeah — Go Blue!
Mantis,
Is it just me, or was it Zarqouwi (sp) that came out with a new tape yesterday metioning something about a mutny in the military? And you think six Generals (out of over 2,000) aren’t giving aid and comfort to the enemy during a time of war? Think again dumbass.
Sorry – “mutiny”
It was a bold, unprecedented, and patriotic move for the 7 American Generals to step up and say what needed to be said in spite of protocol. Rumsfeld and Cheney have made the world into their own personal Monopoly game – And we’re not only losing the political game, but throwing our self respect and true American values out the window in the process!
It had nothing to do with patriotism, and they only needed to step up in order to be validated for their new book deals as well as carry out the lefts latest Dick Clarke, Joe Wilson, Cindy Sheehan assassination plot on the White House..
So what you’re saying Topper is, if six out of two thousand Generals don’t agree with Rumsfeld, He should be fired? If that were the case – every time one of these Generals had a wet fart we’d be changing Defense Secretaries. Now that’s a plan…
What is it now? were down to 4 generals now..the others have recanted and admitted they were paid to lie so..end of non-story !