Rummy Visits Mosul Base

Associated Press Wire | 23 Dec 04 | AP

[fidelio]

BC-APNewsAlert,0031

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visits U.S. troops at a base in Iraq where insurgents' attack killed 22.

AP-NY-12-23-04 2124EST

Will put in a link to a website when they all finally wake up...

[maui_hawaii]

Rummy is awesome! He is one of my favorite people.

Its blatantly offensive to suggest (by some) that he doesn't care about the troops.

In fact, I think they are his entire life.

[WestCoastGal]

I'm sure the dimwits will find something bad in all this.

See this thread if you missed it.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1307472/posts

[MJY1288]

Excellent point

[leadpenny]

I listened to Rummy's news conference yesterday. He is determined and as George Castanza would say, "Rummy's gettin ANGRY!"

I believe he has mentally drawn a line in the sand, and that line is next month's election. Damascus might want to be putting in an extra supply of toilet paper if the insurgency continues into February.

[livius]

While Sen. Jon Corzine goes to Gitmo to see how the terrorists are being treated

Yes, that also says it all.

[JustaCowgirl]

**Yeah, he's really been snubbing our troops, oh wait, he was in Kuwait and now Iraq.**

And Afghanistan.

[MizSterious]

Yes, or else they'll call it a "photo-op." (Funny, they never said that about Clinton's phony treaty signings...)

[ChefKeith]

Personally I'd prefer that he stop and give saddam a swift kick in the nuts on the way there.

[MizSterious]

Perfectly said! I'm so very glad he's still SecDef!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"(Funny, they never said that about Clinton's phony treaty signings...)"

OMG! Remember his tears when he was on Normandy? Criminey. Clinton invented "crying on cue" and Scott Peterson learned at his feet!

[leadpenny]

I wonder what media types went with him? AP's Robert Burns?

[TexKat]

Rumsfeld Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited wounded soldiers and brought holiday greetings on Christmas Eve amid tight security at an air base in northern Iraq where an insurgent's attack killed 14 U.S. troops and eight other people earlier this week.

Hoping to demonstrate compassion for soldiers' sacrifices, Rumsfeld landed in darkness and walked immediately from his plane to a combat surgical hospital where many of the bombing victims were treated after Tuesday's lunchtime attack on a mess tent. The most seriously wounded already have been transferred to a U.S. military hospital in Germany.

Out of concern for security, Rumsfeld's aides went to unusual lengths to keep his visit a secret prior to his arrival, with only a few reporters and one TV crew accompanying him on an overnight flight from Washington.

In an interview aboard the C-17 cargo plane that brought him to Mosul, Rumsfeld said he'd been planning to visit U.S. troops here long before the deadly attack Tuesday, believed to have been carried out by a suicide bomber.

"The focus of the trip is to thank the troops and wish them a Merry Christmas," he said.

The blast Tuesday at Forward Operating Base Marez was the deadliest single attack on a U.S. base in Iraq, striking as hundreds of soldiers sat down to lunch. Fourteen U.S. servicemembers, four American civilians, three Iraqi National Guard members and one "unidentified non-U.S. person" were killed.

The top U.S. general in northern Iraq said Thursday that the suicide bomber believed to have blown himself up in the dining tent was probably wearing an Iraqi military uniform.

The stealth Christmas Eve trip came on the heels of several difficult weeks for the defense chief. Several high-profile Republicans have publicly criticized Rumsfeld, prompting President Bush to defend him Monday as a "good human being who cares deeply about the military and deeply about the grief that war causes."

Speaking for himself on Wednesday, Rumsfeld said he stays awake at night worrying about soldiers and their families and shares their grief over lost loved ones.

"I am truly saddened by the thought that anyone could have the impression that I, or others here, are doing anything other than working urgently to see that the lives of the fighting men and women are protected and are cared for in every way humanly possible," he said.

More than 1,300 Americans have been killed since the war with Iraq began in March 2003, including a devastating suicide attack on an Army mess tent near Mosul on Tuesday. The Pentagon is increasing the number of troops in Iraq to a wartime high of 150,000 in January to boost security for the Iraqi elections.

[KJC1]

Thanks for that link! Good read!

[ken21]

the leftist media's been after rumsfeld for a long time.

early in 2004 there was a front page photo of rumsfeld in the new york times.

the photo showed rumsfeld sitting in a military transport plan surrounded by his staff.

the purpose was to align their anti-military followers against rumsfeld.

[McGavin999]

Thank you God for this good man. Heading right for the wounded troops, imagine the lift that will give them.

[MizSterious]

" Hoping to demonstrate compassion for soldiers' sacrifices..."

This is what I call sarcastic and cynical reporting. As if the whole visit was some kind of play-acting. A lump of coal in that reporter's stocking!

[mickie]

"Rummy goes to Mosul to see how the troops are While Sen. Jon Corzine goes to Gitmo to see how the terrorists are being treated And the Dems can't figure out what's wrong with this picture

Good, very good....worth repeating.

[Redleg Duke]

That's "a light coat of oil", dickhead!

Get with the program!

[Mike Bates]

Hoping to demonstrate compassion for soldiers' sacrifices. . .

Gee, the MSM can read his mind now.

Michael M. Bates: My Side of the Swamp

[ApesForEvolution]

Which FReeper said this:

"Oh, I'm sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear enough: I think Donald Rumsfeld should resign.

He's incompetent, stupid, self-righteous and basically personifies idiocy... If you think he's got a record to stand on, Tinkerbell, state it and step on up.

It is my opinioh that these characteristics disqualify him from maintaining his current position.

Do you wanna step, little boy?

I'll be gone for about two hours at dinner, at which point I'll return to respond to whatever you have to say.

Do your worst, child, I'll be happy to discipline your ignorance."

>>>

Troll maybe? /XXXs