A few hours later, Bush took his turn, granting reporters a 12-minute appearance at the Tamarack Resort in Donnelly, Idaho. "We're making progress on two fronts," he said.
Asked about the Sunni leader who raised the prospect of civil war, Bush said he was just one "fellow" among many in the process. Fox News continued its tough posture on Bush, asking if an Islamic constitution really could respect the rights of women; Bush said Rice had assured him it would.
Like Bartlett, Bush hit his main theme: There's no alterative to staying in Iraq. "I think those who advocate immediate withdrawal from not only Iraq but the Middle East are advocating a policy that would weaken the United States," he said.
After the State Department spokesman took his midday stab at reassurance -- "what we are watching is history unfold" -- the stage was left to the administration's best performer, Rumsfeld.
The secretary was, at first, uncharacteristically subdued. Rumsfeld allowed that "the process has been delayed a bit," and that "regrettably, completing the constitution is not likely to end all the violence."
Invited to comment on Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a slain soldier in Iraq bedeviling the administration with her war protest, Rumsfeld was soothing. "Anyone who lives the lives we live in this department and meets families of those that have died and meets families of those who have been wounded has to feel a great deal of empathy for each one of them," he said.
Dispensing with those sensitive subjects, Rumsfeld returned to form. He likened critics of the Iraq war, in its 30th month, to those who said in the early days of the Afghanistan war that the United States was in a quagmire. He dismissed as a "dead ender" an Iraqi Sunni who warned about civil war. To those who see Iraq pulling apart, he retorted that "just opposite's been happening." He suggested "those being tossed about by the winds of concern" should pull themselves together.
Asked about Hagel's comparing Iraq to Vietnam, Rumsfeld cut down the senator with one sentence. "The differences are so notable that it would take too long to list them," he said, although earlier in the briefing he asserted that the Iraq insurgents "are not Ho Chi Minhs."
Ultimately, Rumsfeld returned to the same argument Bush and Bartlett had employed: There's no choice but to stay in Iraq. "The alternative would be to turn that country and 25 million people over to terrorists," Rumsfeld said. "That would be to turn to darkness."
