Rumsfeld Urges Optimism on Iraq

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today urged Americans to be more optimistic about the situation in Iraq, saying that people on the ground there have more optimistic views than what is being portrayed in the U.S. media.

Rumsfeld, speaking at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, delivered a blistering attack on the U.S. media, saying that in the present 24-hour news cycle, events in Iraq can be reported too quickly and without context.

He said there was a "jarring contrast between what the American people are reading and hearing about Iraq and the views of the Iraqi people." The Iraqi people and the U.S. military deployed in the country, he said, were optimistic about the progress of the war there.

"Which view of Iraq is more accurate?" Rumsfeld asked. "The pessimistic view of the so-called elites in our country or the more optimistic view of millions of Iraqis and some 155,000 U.S. troops on the ground?

"A lie moves around the world at the speed of light," Rumsfeld said, "while truth is still trying to get its boots on." He referred to the recent story in the U.S. media that private contractors working for the U.S. military had paid Iraqi media outlets to carry optimistic stories about the war.

"That story has been pounded in the media," Rumsfeld said. "We don't know what the facts are yet. The story goes out and we're still trying to find out what the facts are."

Rumsfeld's speech came as pressure has grown on the Bush administration to bring troops home. His speech was part of the administration's now almost daily effort to counter the increasing unease about the war. More than 2,100 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq.

"How will history judge, if it does, the reporting some decades from now when Iraq's path is settled," Rumsfeld said.