Rumsfeld to troops: Mission is achievable

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on a Christmas Eve mission to cheer up the troops in Iraq, promised them that no matter how bleak things might look at any one moment they will look back on their mission with pride.

"There's no doubt in my mind, this is achievable," Rumsfeld told troops in Mosul just three days after the devastating attack on a U.S. military dining hall here.

"When it looks bleak, when one worries about how it's going to come out, when one reads and hears the naysayers and the doubters who say it can't be done, and that we're in a quagmire here," one should recall that there have been such doubters "throughout every conflict in the history of the world," he told about 200 soldiers of the 1st Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division at their commander's headquarters.

Traveling in secrecy amid tight security, Rumsfeld landed in pre-dawn darkness and immediately headed for 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.

Later in the day, Rumsfeld shared a Christmas Eve dinner with troops at a base outside of Baghdad. Wearing a plastic apron, he helped serve food to the troops and later told them as they ate that it would be dangerous to underestimate the power of the insurgency in Iraq.

Rumsfeld said he could not predict whether the level of violence would abate after the Jan. 30 election but said the conflict now amounts to a test of will. "They are determined, but so are we," he said.

Rumsfeld met with Iraqi interim president Ghazi al-Yawer while in Baghdad, and the two discussed the upcoming election.

"I have no doubt in my mind that we are going to succeed," al-Yawer said. "Our enemy is ruthless. It's rootless and ruthless. But we are compassionate and deeply rooted in the Iraqi society and the world."

At a stop in Tikrit, the hometown of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Rumsfeld met with the commander of the 1st Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. John Batiste.

Batiste said that 90 percent of the threat in his area, which covers four provinces in northcentral and northeastern Iraq is from former Baathist regime elements.

He told Rumsfeld the groundwork is being laid for successful elections in this part of Iraq, which is predominantly Sunni.

Standing under a bright sun on a brisk morning, Rumsfeld addressed a group of about 250 soldiers gathered outside Batiste's headquarters, thanking them for their service and wishing them holiday greetings.

His third stop was in Fallujah, where Marine infantrymen fought with insurgents on Thursday as warplanes and tanks bombarded guerrilla positions in the heaviest fighting there in weeks.

However, all seemed quiet as he met with Marines at their main base outside the city on Friday.

"What's taking place here is at a stage where a great many people doubt whether or not it can be accomplished," he said, reprising the theme he struck in Mosul.

But he reminded about 200 Marines eating lunch in a mess hall adorned with several small plastic trees and homemade Christmas decorations that repressive regimes in Germany and the former Soviet Union had been removed and said he was confident freedom would prevail in Iraq.

"All I can say is, people basically want to be free," he said to cheers and applause in the refurbished brick and plaster Iraqi building.

Indeed, the 72-year-old defense chief was greeted warmly by the troops at each stop. He spent a lot of time shaking hands and posing with a number of soldiers who wanted to have their picture taken with him.

In Fallujah, one soldier gave Rumsfeld a cigar he claimed had been part of a "stash" held by Saddam Hussein. Rumsfeld laughed and said, "I love it."

He also took questions from the crowds at each stop, but none had the critical edge that he ran into in Kuwait on his most recent visit to the region.

During his brief stop at the 67th Combat Surgical Hospital in Mosul, Rumsfeld presented a Purple Heart medal to Sgt. Chris Scott, who was wounded a day earlier. He also thanked the hospital's staff for their work in treating the dozens of wounded from Tuesday's attack at the mess hall, located near the base's airfield.

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 Tuesday's deadly attack, believed to have been carried out by a suicide bomber.

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. service members were among the 22 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 episode has focused new attention on the ability of the U.S. military to protect its forces.

Security experts said improved screening of visitors and fewer large troop gatherings would help counter insurgents' tactics. Some individual bases have taken steps such as posting guards outside mess tents. Military officials discussed ways to increase security for troops in Iraq but announced no major shifts Thursday.

Rumsfeld's visit to Mosul came as U.S. Marines engaged in the heaviest fighting in weeks in Fallujah, the embattled city west of Baghdad, where U.S. troops waged bloody battles before clearing the city of most militants last month. At least three Marines were killed in combat that underlined how far the city and surrounding area are from being tamed as the United States and its Iraqi allies try to bring quiet before national elections Jan. 30.

In introducing Rumsfeld to his troops at Task Force Olympia headquarters, Brig. Gen. Carter Ham expressed gratitude for what he described as an outpouring of Christmas cards and other expressions of thanks and condolences from people across the United States since Tuesday's attack.

In his prepared remarks to Ham's soldiers, Rumsfeld alluded to Tuesday' attack and said he was inspired by the spirit shown by the wounded. He said he had visited other wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on Wednesday.

"It's amazing, what they say, how they feel about the work that's being done out here," he said.

Rumsfeld's 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."

Rumsfeld has made several visits to troops in the region, most recently two weeks ago to a forward base in Kuwait. There, a handful of soldiers openly challenged him about inadequate equipment and long deployments.

CNN Transcript -Rumsfeld's Surprise Visit to Iraq

This is General Hamm. He's speaking out. He's the commander, you know, in charge of the troops in Mosul. Let's listen to what he has to say.

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAMM, COMMANDER, U.S. ARMY: And I just, for all of us, to say thank you to all those who have taken the time to share with us. It gives us great strength and courage to know that so many Americans are supportive of all that we're trying to do. So thank you to all of the Americans that have done that.

But mostly today, I'd like to say thank you to Secretary Rumsfeld for taking the time out of an extraordinarily hectic schedule, as you all know, to come spend a few moments here with us in Task Force Olympia and the soldiers of Multinational Brigade Northwest.

Mr. Secretary, thank you, sir, for coming, very much. It is very appreciated.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Thank you.

(UNINTELLIGIBLE) and have a chance to look you in the eye and in a few minutes maybe shake your hand and tell you personally how much I and the American people appreciate and value and respect what you're doing. What you're doing is enormously important. It is, it is, of course, in recent days, you've had a terrible attack and tragedy. And the world has watched and seen the speed with which those wounded have been taken care of and taken off to Germany.

Yesterday, I guess the day before, I was out at Walter Reed visiting with the families and the troops that are wounded there. None of the folks from here yet have arrived. They'll be arriving, I suppose, over the next three or four days, and I'll see them when I get back. But the amazing thing to me is to go into the hospitals -- Bethesda, Walter Reed and Brookes or wherever -- and talk to the wounded folks and their families, their loved ones and see the strength that they have. It is truly extraordinary. It's amazing to see the -- what they say and how they feel about the work that's being done out here, how much respect they have for their sons and their daughters and their loved ones and how proud they are.

I never fail to come away but what I've been strengthened and encouraged and inspired for the tasks that we all face.

I, when you see an attack like we saw here so recently, we think it's tough and difficult and one has to ask the question, what's going to happen here in this country of Iraq, 25 million people who've been liberated? And yet we see this insurgency pressing on and on, month after month.

There is no doubt in my mind but that this is achievable. Why would I say that?

Earlier this month, I was in Afghanistan. And if you think about it, three years ago in Afghanistan, the al Qaeda and the Taliban were training terrorists and attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the aircraft that crashed in Pennsylvania. That was just three years ago.

Shortly after we attacked Afghanistan, it was described as a quagmire. The Soviet Union had been in there for years. They had lost tens of thousands of people. They had 200,000 to 250,000 people in the country and another 50,000 to 100,000 people in neighboring countries and they lost.

And three years later, Afghanistan is not a quagmire. Afghanistan is a country of 25 million people liberated that has had their first free and fair election in 500 years, in the history of the country. People said the Afghan people weren't ready for democracy, they weren't ready for freedom and liberation. They had suffered terrible droughts, a terrible civil war. They had warlords. They had drugs being grown. They were occupied by the Soviets for years. And here we are, three years later. They have an elected president, Hamid Karzai. They have a cabinet of very responsible individuals. Their women voted. Over 41 percent of the people who voted were women, unheard of. At the inauguration, they had kids up on the stage, little boys and little girls dancing and singing and doing things. And, of course, that was illegal in that country. You weren't allowed to fly a kite or whistle or sing on the street. Women weren't allowed out alone. And there they were at the inauguration of Karzai on the stage.

It was a breathtaking experience. I've never been prouder to be an American. I think I brought along what President Karzai said, if I can find it here. He stopped -- here it is. If you think about how little noted what happened in Afghanistan is on television and in the press -- we don't see a lot of it. We see the explosions here. We see the problems. But shortly before he took office, Karzai met with Vice President Cheney and me and the members of our delegation. And then he spoke to all the American people. And he said to all of us, to you and to your families and to everyone across our country: "Whatever we have achieved in Afghanistan is from the help that the United States of America gave us."

He went on to say that, "Without that help, Afghanistan would be in the hands of terrorists, destroyed, poverty stricken, without its children going to school or getting an education. We are very grateful. To put it in the simple words we know," he said, "to the people of the United States of America for bringing us that day."

The people who helped in Afghanistan, the people working here, each of you, even you up there, who I keep forgetting to look at and I want to include because I'm deeply grateful to all of you, will look back in 10, 20 or 30 years and know that you have been part of something enormously important. The -- when it looks bleak, when one worries about how it's going to come out, when one reads and hears the naysayers and the doubters who say it can't be done and that we're in a quagmire here now, the fact is there have always been people, throughout every conflict in the history of the world, who said it couldn't be done. And people will be able to look back and know that they've been involved. Each of you will be able to look back and know that you've been involved in something truly historic, something truly important.

And I take great heart from the fact that if one looks through history and sees all the difficulties that occurred in major conflicts, in major battles, in major struggles and there are always some people who show resolution and determination. And that's been the hallmark of our country. There were doubters throughout the World War 2. We lost battle after battle in the early years. There were people in the cold war who wanted to toss in the towel and say it just can't be won. For a period, Euro communism was popular.

That's always been the way. But the great sweep of human history is for freedom. And that is powerful. And that is the side we are on. And the thought of turning over this country to the people who behead people on television and videos, to the people who consciously, purposefully kill innocent men, women and children, would turn this part of the world and this country back to darkness. And we simply can't let that happen.

So I am grateful to you. I respect you. I wish you all a Merry Christmas. It's -- and the very best of holidays. I know that you've got loved ones that -- it's not easy being away from loved ones during the holiday season. But know that they're strong and know that they love you and know that they're proud of you.

So god bless you, each of you, and your families, and god bless our country.

Thank you very much.

______________________________________________________

RUMSFELD: ... will require some modest extensions or some overlaps. We try to -- we spend a lot of time on deployments and trying to figure out how to do it right. The Army's trying to get out of a shoebox with three by five cards and get a set of systems where we can really manage it in a way that is respectful of units, respectful of individuals. And Pete Schoomaker and the new secretary of the Army, Fran Harvey, are determined to get a system where we have the mechanisms that we can be -- really treat people right and see that they have some heads up as to what's going to happen in their lives beforehand.

We've, during the initial deployments, we found on some of the Reserve units we were notifying them five days in advance and not 30. And that's not fair to the families. It's not fair to their employers.

So we've just got to do it better.

Donald Rumsfeld Makes Surprise Visit to Troops in Iraq

(JOINED IN PROGRESS) DONALD RUMSFELD, SECY. OF DEFENSE: ... will require some modest extensions or some overlaps. We try to -- we spend a lot of time on deployments and trying to figure out how to do it right. The Army is trying to get out of a shoebox with three-by-five cards and get a set of systems, where we can really manage it in a way that is respectful of units, respectful of individuals.

And Pete Schoolmaker (ph) and the new secretary of the Army, Trent Harbie (ph), are determined to get a system, where we have the mechanisms that we can be -- to really treat people right and see that they have some heads-up as to what's going to happen in their lives beforehand.

During the initial deployments, we found on some of the reserve units we were notifying them five days in advance and not 30. And that's not fair to the families. It's not fair to their employers. So, we've just got to do it better.

But on rare occasions, as you can well understand, and we're into this election overlap period, where the commanders on the ground said, look, we need 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people extra. So, we're now up at 151,000 in country, whereas we had been around 130,000.

And the elections are coming, and it's important, and it's important that they get it right. And they've got a very well- organized set of things ready to have it go right. And so, it's hard to have to do that, to sit there and sign that and say, these folks, we told them they were going to be there up to a year, we said, "in theater." We didn't say "in country." I misspoke. So, most people are not in country for that period specified. They actually start out in Kuwait and then spend some time. But nonetheless, it's away from home.

So, we hope not to have to do that often. We haven't had to do it often. But there are going to be times when it's in all of our interests that that happens. So, are any of you -- have any of you been extended over the year?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, but we're doing the math already. And for first brigade soldiers, we know that our year will come just prior to next year's elections. And so, we're already looking at the future at what could possibly happen.

RUMSFELD: Well, let me -- as you know what the goal is here, the coalition forces can't provide security for the Iraqis. Iraqis are going to provide security for the Iraqis in the last analysis. And our task is to get those folks trained up and equipped and organized and give them that responsibility.

So, we have to put an enormous focus on that piece of it. And that is the only way it will work. It's their country. They're going to have to pull it up and make it work. We've sent the best people in the world over here from a lot of different counties, including ours, to liberate this country and to help them get started and to create an environment that's hospital for them to take a hold of their lives and move this country down a path towards democracy that's respectful of the various ethnic groups here and that's at peace with its neighbors.

And that's all another country can do. We're not here to occupy this country. We're not here for their oil, as some people run around mouthing (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We're here to see that they have an opportunity to do it, and it's up to them to do it. And that's what our task is.

Question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, how do we win the war in the media? It seems like that is the place where we're getting beat up more than anybody else. I've been here -- this is my third tour over here, and we have done some amazing things. And it seems like the enemy's Web sites and everything else are all over the media, and they love it. But the thing is, is everything we do good, no matter if it's helping a little kid or building a new school, the public affairs sends out the message, but the media doesn't pick up on it. How do we win the propaganda war?

RUMSFELD: That does not sound like a question that was planted by the press.

(LAUGHTER)

RUMSFELD: That happens sometimes. It's one of the hardest things we do in our country. We have freedom of the press. We believe in that. We believe that democracy can take that massive misinformation and differing of views, and that free people can synthesize all of that and find their way to right decisions.

Out here, it's particularly tough. Everything we do here is harder, because of television stations like Al Jazeera and al-Arabiya and the constant negative approach. You don't hear about the schools are open and the hospitals are open and the clinics are open, and the fact that the stock markets are open and the Iraqi currency is steady, and the fact that there have been something like 140,000 refugees coming from other countries back into this country. They're voting with their feet, because they believe this is a country of the future.

You don't read about that. You read about every single negative thing that anyone can find to report.

I was talking to a group of congressmen and senators the other day, and there were a couple of them who had negative things to say, and they were in the press in five minutes. There were 15 or 20 that had positive things to say about what's going on in Iraq, and they couldn't get on television. Television just said we're not interested. That's just sorry. So, it is, I guess, what's news has to be bad news to get on the press.

And the truth is, however, it gets through eventually. There are people in the United States who understand what's really going on over here. They do understand that thousands of acts of kindness and compassion and support that are taking place all across this country. They do understand that large portions of this country are relatively peaceful. And something like 14 out of 18 of the problems it's had, incidents of down around five a day as opposed to the ones in certain places like Baghdad that are considerably higher.

And the Internet is helping. More and more people are seeing things that are taking the conventional wisdom and critiquing it and arguing it and debating it. And that's a good thing.

So, we are a great country. And we can benefit from having a free press. And from time to time people will be concerned about it. But in the last analysis, look at where we've come as a country, because we have had a free press.

And we've -- I mean, I've got a great deal of confidence in the center of gravity of the American people. What hurts most is in the region, where the neighboring countries whose help we need are constantly being barraged with truly vicious inaccuracies about what's taking place in this country. And it's conscious. It's consistent. It's persistent. And it makes everything we try to do in neighboring countries, where we're looking for support, vastly more difficult.

And we, as a country, don't do that. We don't go out and hire journalists and propagandize and lie and put people on payroll so that they'll say what you want. We just don't do that. And they do. And that's happening. And Al Jazeera is right there at the top.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll take one more question, and then give a chance for some (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, I just have a comment as an officer who is likely going to come under that stop-loss during his time here. I just want to say that there are people who understand the importance of keeping the integrity of a unit, and the stabilization of units is also a very good thing. And I wanted to thank you for that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we do understand that sacrifice comes with us all.

RUMSFELD: Well, God bless you for saying that. It is -- as I say, it is no fun for anybody to have to make that decision that they want to extend somebody beyond when they had every reason to expect they wouldn't be extended, or to have to impose a stop-loss to maintain unit integrity for the benefit of everyone in the unit and the effectiveness of our force.

But we do have to do it from time to time, and I thank you for speaking up and for saying that a great deal. God bless you.

All right, thank you, folks.

(APPLAUSE)

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