Runsfeld takes one for the troops

You've got to respect a man who'll risk his life by going to the site of the Mosul terrorist attack just three days later, deep in hostile territory to check up on his troops: U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on a surprise Christmas Eve visit with the troops three days after the devastating attack on a U.S. military dining hall here, told soldiers he remained confident of defeating the insurgency and stabilizing Iraq, while noting that to some "it looks bleak." He added later: "When it looks bleak, when one worries about how it's going to come out, when one reads and hears the naysayers and the doubters who say it can't be done, and that we're in a quagmire here," one should recall that there have been such doubters "throughout every conflict in the history of the world," he said. God bless ya, Rummy. If only you could have done it after being dropped on an aircraft carrier's deck via helicopter with a "Mission Accomplished" sign as the backdrop. That would have been perfect.