Combative US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday received what may have been his most scathing questioning yet on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers decried what they see as the Pentagon's botched handling of Iraq.
Rumsfeld appeared at a hearing of the Senate's Armed Services Committee where one of the least forgiving questioners was Democratic US Senator Hillary Clinton, a perennial critic, who lashed the defense secretary for a "record of incompetence."
"We hear a lot of happy talk and rosy scenarios, but because of the administration's strategic blunders and, frankly, the record of incompetence in executing, you are presiding over a failed policy," Clinton told Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld answered that "history will make a judgment" about his alleged misjudgments and missteps.
"Are there setbacks? Yes. Are there things that people can't anticipate? Yes. Does the enemy have a brain and continue to make adjustments on the ground, requiring our forces to continue to make adjustments? You bet. Is that going to continue to be the case? I think so," he said.
"Is this problem going to get solved in the near term about this long struggle against violent extremism?" asked Rumsfeld. "No, I don't believe it is, I think it's going to take some time."
Another Democrat, Carl Levin decried the rising sectarian violence, despite the heavy US military presence.
"Sectarian violence is not only on the rise, it has eclipsed the Sunni insurgency and the terrorism of al-Qaeda in Iraq, in terms of the toll it has taken and the threats to Iraq's chances of stability," Levin said.
The beleaguered defense secretary had tried to avoid appearing before Thursday's panel pleading a busy schedule, but gave in to a chorus of calls by Senate Democrats who insisted it was vitally important he appear to explain US policy in Iraq.
Rumsfeld urged lawmakers not to withdraw from Iraq too early, saying it would only embolden extremists and lead to an eventual US withdrawal from the Middle East.
"We can persevere in Iraq or we can withdraw prematurely, until they force us to make a stand nearer home," the defense chief said.
"It is true that there are people who are attempting to prevent that government from being successful," he said. "And they are the people who are blowing up buildings and killing innocent men, women and children, and taking off the heads of people on television. And the idea of their prevailing is unacceptable."
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
RSS