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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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December 16th,
2006 - Rumsfeld Honored at Pentagon Departure Ceremony |
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Rumsfeld Honored at Pentagon
Departure Ceremony By Jennifer Loven and Robert Burns Associated Press December 16, 2006 Washington - Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the public face of an unpopular war, bid
farewell to the Pentagon yesterday in a splashy sendoff featuring lavish
praise from President Bush. Rumsfeld defended to the end the mission that led
to his ouster. Combative to the last,
Rumsfeld took a slap at advocates of withdrawing US troops from the war, now
in its fourth year with more than 2,900 Americans dead. "It may well be
comforting to some to consider graceful exits from the agonies and, indeed,
the ugliness of combat," Rumsfeld said, choking up slightly as he capped
a roster of speakers at his pomp-filled goodbye ceremony. "But the enemy
thinks differently." Rumsfeld's service to the
country over five decades and for four presidents was saluted in an hourlong
ceremony. A drum roll marked the
entrance of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Rumsfeld to a field outside
the Pentagon. Troops fired a cannon salute of 19 rounds. On Monday, Robert Gates
takes over for Rumsfeld, who will be just 10 days shy of surpassing
Vietnam-era Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara as the longest-serving
Pentagon chief ever. Far from apologizing for the
Iraq war that was the undoing of Rumsfeld, speakers heralded both the war and
his leadership. Bush applauded Rumsfeld for
the invasion that drove Saddam Hussein from power in just 21 days and for
seeing the Iraqi people through the resumption of sovereignty, two elections,
the adoption of a constitution, and the seating of a new government. There
was no mention of the potent anti-American insurgency that arose after the
invasion, nor of the spiraling sectarian fighting that has more recently
brought increased bloodshed. "On his watch, the
United States military helped the Iraqi people establish a constitutional
democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a watershed event in the story of
freedom," said Bush, who hugged Rumsfeld. "This man knows how to
lead, and he did. And the country is better off for it." Cheney, close to Rumsfeld in
a nearly 40-year friendship, was even more effusive. "I've never worked
harder for a boss, and I've never learned more from one either," said the
vice president, hired by Rumsfeld in 1969 into the Nixon White House. "I
believe the record speaks for itself: Don Rumsfeld is the finest secretary of
defense this nation has ever had." A former Navy aviator, the
74-year-old Rumsfeld is the only person to hold the position twice, serving
as the nation's 21st defense secretary and its 13th. Under President Ford, he
was the youngest Pentagon chief in US history. He leaves having been its
oldest as well. External link: http://tinyurl.com/ym5mtl |