Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld delivered an impassioned defense of himself yesterday, saying at a Pentagon news conference that U.S. casualties in Iraq affect him profoundly.
"I hope and pray that every family member of those who have died so bravely knows how deeply I feel their loss," he said in a lengthy statement at the outset of the session. "When I meet with the wounded, with their families, or with the families of those who have been lost, their grief is something I feel to my core."
Rumsfeld also said he stays "awake at night for concern for those at risk."
Rumsfeld, who has been so embattled lately that President Bush came to his defense earlier this week, did not directly mention an incident in Kuwait earlier this month in which some people thought he was dismissive of a soldier's concern about the lack of armor on military vehicles, and a subsequent flap over his office's using a machine to put his signature to letters of condolence to families of soldiers killed in Iraq.
"I am truly saddened by the thought that anyone could have the impression that I, or others here, are doing anything other than working urgently to see that the lives of fighting men and women are protected and are cared for in every way humanly possible," he said.
After Rumsfeld's recent troubles, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that a slim majority of respondents disapproved of his performance and thought he should be dismissed. Also, some members of Congress, Republicans as well as Democrats, have called for him to step down. Those reviews contrast sharply to the Rumsfeld of 2001 and 2002, whose bravura briefings during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq led to him being dubbed the Bush administration's "rock star."
In his introductory comments yesterday, Rumsfeld also reviewed the Bush administration's successes in national security. "More than three-quarters of al Qaeda's key members and associates have been captured or killed," he said. Also, he continued, Afghanistan has been liberated, and it recently held elections. He was less upbeat about Iraq, saying that "ultimately" Iraqis will have to protect themselves. "It's their country," he said.
At the Pentagon, he said, the Bush administration has brought about "major and indeed historic changes in the global posture" of the U.S. military.
But it was Rumsfeld's comments on his own feelings and his subdued demeanor that most struck some who watched the briefing.
"It seemed almost an act of contrition," said retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales Jr., a former head of the Army War College. "That's what it came across as, dripping of humility." He added: "The spark, the sense of self-confidence, wasn't there."
Harlan K. Ullman, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he considered Rumsfeld's softer tone understandable, especially in light of the Tuesday bombing attack on U.S. troops in Mosul that left more than 90 casualties.
"He wants to come across as a very tough, hard-bitten guy," Ullman said. But, he said, "I think he really grieves about these losses. He really feels it. The trouble is, he has a hard time expressing this."
