Rumsfeld: US not losing Iraq war

Rumsfeld defended the administration's policies in IraqDonald Rumsfeld has said the US is not losing the Iraq war and it would be a mistake to set a timetable for American troops to leave the country.
To set a deadline would "send a lifeline to terrorists", he told House and Senate committees.
But the US top Gulf commander General John Abizaid told the same Senate committee more foreign fighters were coming into Iraq than six months ago.
The hearings come amid waning public support in the US for the war.
'Damascus focus'
A series of bombings in Iraq late on Wednesday and early on Thursday killed at least 30 people in Baghdad, while a recent opinion poll showed that 51% of Americans now think the invasion two years ago was a mistake.
I would say there is a clear node inside Syria which facilitates [the entering of insurgents]"
General Abizaid, Gulf commander
"I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago," Gen Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He said suicide bombers from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco were entering Iraq via Syria, joining others from Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
"I would say there is a clear node inside Syria which facilitates it. Whether or not the Syrian government is facilitating it or ignoring it is probably a debatable question, but the key node is Damascus," he said.
Democrat Senator Carl Levin has suggested that the view is at odds with Vice-President Cheney's view that the insurgency was in its last throes.
Need for patience
A small bipartisan group in Congress has proposed a resolution calling on President George W Bush to start bringing home US troops from Iraq by 1 October 2006.
But Mr Rumsfeld said that timing in war was not predictable and there were no guarantees.
"And any who say that we've lost this war, or that we're losing this war are wrong. We are not," he told senators.
Setting a date for withdrawal would "send a lifeline to terrorists", he said.
Insurgents "have suffered significant losses in casualties, been denied havens, and suffered weakened popular support" in recent months, he added.
Leaving before the task is complete would be catastrophic
Gen Richard MyersChairman of Joint Chiefs of StaffThere was still a way to go, he said, but progress was being made.
"Success will not be easy and it will require patience... But consider what has been accomplished in 12 months," he said, mentioning the elections in January, economic improvements, and improvements in Iraq's security force.
Democrat Senator Edward Kennedy said that Mr Rumsfeld's predictions had been wrong in the past and repeated calls for him to resign.
But Mr Rumsfeld was backed by Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told the panel that "leaving before the task is complete would be catastrophic".
The US has 135,000 troops in Iraq. The Pentagon says it has trained and equipped some 168,500 Iraqi police and military personnel.
However, the continuing violence had led some US commanders to scale back optimistic predictions that US troop numbers could be reduced any time soon, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent, Jonathan Marcus.
And while Iraq's new security forces are growing in number, their effectiveness remains very much in doubt, our correspondent adds.

In both the Meet the Press and Fox News Sunday for 6/26/05 He was still wearing the rose colored glasses.
"It's not going bad" he says. All the voting and getting the constitution set in place. Things are good, all that the news is showing is the bad things.
I wonder how he can say that when more Republicans are now speaking out against the war. Senator Lindsey Graham is only one of them.
I want to know if things are so good then why did 17,035 of our people die so far. Yeah they are military, it's accepted even expected that some will die in a war. This isn't a war we should be in though.
Rummy thinks that the progress is impressive. Rummy says that the insurgents are from other countries, like Jordan. They may well be, but how and why aren't you keeping them out so that the people of Iraq can get their stuff together and make their country a better place to live.
The people of Iraq don't have adiquite plumbing, electrical, and many other things. Why aren't we doing things about that? Why aren't we making sure the basic needs are being met? That will help us get the country to stability quicker then the fighting.
Rummy thinks that when the next elections come around there will be a spike in the fighting. I think so too. That is one thing we agree on.
He says the national troups are getting better and more are being trained, but we don't have enough yet to let them stand on their own. Again I have to agree, but we wouldn't have to be doing what we are if we hadn't gone in there in the first place.
He was talking about how the forces were set up ie... border patrol, police, military etc...
and he doesn't think that we will need a draft. We have lots of troups that all we need is to re-shuffle them around. Take some off of civilian duty on the military bases and put civilians in. Things of that nature also take some from other bases and put them into Iraq.
Rummy is against an independant commission for the problems at Gitmo, but of course he would be. He says that the ones who have done things in the wrong way have faced the boards and gotten their discipline.
The moderator on Fox News Sunday asked him a question and even said this is a point blank question and I want a point blank answer. Yet when it came to the question he still danced around and played with words. The question?
"Is the insurgency in it's last throws? Straight answer. Is it?"
"Well politically we are gaining, militarily it goes up and down."
A couple of of stats:
Attacks for
Jan/Feb 57
March/April 53
May 70
And the stats for June aren't in yet of course.
A Viet Nam Vet. who's son is now in Iraq asked a question of him(in writing) wondering about the number of troups on the ground saying we didn't have enough then and we don't have enough now. He thinks its another Nam situation.
Rummy disagreed about that, but I have been saying before this started that if we get over there it will be another Nam.
I love our troups, I am a Nam Era Vet, but I do not, can not stand with the way this country went into a country the way it did in the first place.
Rummy you are dancing around so many things, so much that I think you are full of shit!