Posted on 12/06/2005 6:26:06 AM PST by Former Military Chick
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld conceded yesterday that the insurgency in Iraq has been stronger than anticipated but also said the news media have focused on the war's growing body count rather than progress that has been achieved.
"To be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks," Rumsfeld said in remarks at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He added, "It's appropriate to note not only how many Americans have been killed - and may God bless them and their families - but what they died for or, more accurately, what they lived for."
Continuing recent Bush administration efforts to defend war policies, Rumsfeld said Americans should be optimistic about progress that has been made politically and militarily in Iraq, as that country prepares for next week's parliamentary election.
In a change of focus, Rumsfeld also aimed some of his remarks at the media for presenting a "jarring contrast between what the American people are reading and hearing about Iraq and the views of the Iraqi people."
The Iraqis, he said, are more upbeat about their country, their security forces are growing, and they are on the road to democracy.
Rumsfeld's speech came amid increasing discontent with the war among some members of Congress. In addition, more than half of Americans now say it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq, according to recent polls. Pressure on the administration has grown as the number of U.S. military deaths has surpassed 2,100. Rumsfeld said focusing on that number would be as misleading as concentrating on the large numbers of casualties at battles like Iwo Jima during World War II - without acknowledging the victories eventually achieved.
Rumsfeldquestioned stories about a military propaganda program that secretly paid Iraqi newspapers and journalists to publish favorable articles about the war and rebuilding in Iraq. He said he didn't know if the allegations were true, and questioned whether a contractor properly implemented military policy, which was supposed to require the articles to be labeled as ads or opinion pieces.
U.S. military leaders in Iraq confirmed the existence of the propaganda program last week.
"It's a classic case of blaming the messenger," said Steve Rendall, a senior analyst at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group in New York. "When the news is bad, blame the journalists for ignoring the good news. Rumsfeld is confusing bias with bad news. Reporting bad news is not bias."
Rumsfeld acknowledged that the war has not gone according to plan, but said many things that were feared - including destruction of oil fields - have not happened. Insurgent attacks on pipelines, however, are costing Iraq about 500,000 barrels of oil a day, almost a third of its daily output.
From Bush's declaration of an end of major combat in May 2003 to Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion in May 2005 that the insurgency was "in the last throes," the administration has maintained an upbeat tone . But the deadly groups - including Sunni extremists and foreign terrorists coming across the borders - have continued to kill U.S. and Iraqi forces.
In one indication of the continuing problems, the Pentagon yesterday expanded a special task force to counter the devastating roadside bombs that kill coalition forces and Iraqi civilians.
In another troubling development,the Iraqi Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer told the Associated Press that the training of Iraqi forces has been hampered in recent months because some security units are being used to go after political rivals.
The administration has said Iraqi security forces are growing in size and skills - prerequisites to drawing down U.S. troops.
Some Democrats renewed calls for Rumsfeld to be removed from his post.
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said U.S. troops "have been put in greater danger by the mistakes of this secretary of defense who refuses to tell the truth about what is happening in Iraq and pushes aside anyone who dares speak truth to power."
The administration needs to pound it into people that the media and a number of Democrats are the ones responsible for many of the deaths now happening.
We're NOT going to let John Kerry do this again!
>>"It's a classic case of blaming the messenger," said Steve Rendall, a senior analyst at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group in New York. "When the news is bad, blame the journalists for ignoring the good news." <<
No, blame the journalists for completely ignoring the good news.
This transparent linguistic sleight of hand is typical. He completely ignores Rumsfeld's statement -- that the MSM does not print good news.
What do you call 1,000 journalists at the bottom of a garbage landfill?
A good start.
It's quite plain. The "american" "mainstream"
nmews media, are traiors...enemies..of the
United States, and everything decent.
Neither can I. The main steam media needs to do a better job on reporting ALL the news.
A link to what Rumsfeld actually said:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2005/20051206_3553.html
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