from released excerpts:
insurgents would succeed only '"if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi" and "if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like Bin Laden."
But Rumsfeld said this:
"We're not going to win against the insurgency. The Iraqi people are going to win against the insurgency," Rumsfeld said on Fox News Sunday. "That insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years."
A day after warning that the insurgency may last as long as 12 years, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the country could still function even if the insurgents remain active.
"Success for the coalition should not be defined as domestic tranquility in Iraq," Rumsfeld said. "Other democracies have had to contend with terrorism and insurgencies for a number of years, but they have been able to function and eventually succeed."
Surprise, we still don't have a clear picture of what we're doing...Bush's contention that we would abandon Iraq to Insurgents like Zarqawi is utterly ridiculous...Why are there thousands of radical fundamentalist like Zarqawi pouring into the Iraq? Because of the American occupation...so us being there is the problem...that is why Hagel says we're "losing" in Iraq because we can't kill them faster than they can come in the country...why? because we don't have enough troops to secure the border...By staying there longer and delaying the inevitable will only venerate radical fundamentalist more and increase thier ranks to the level that they will be spilling over in to the US with box cutters and Hijacked 757's.