Lawmakers turn up heat on Rumsfeld over war strategy

WASHINGTON — Worry in Congress about the course of U.S. strategy in Iraq boiled over yesterday into a scalding attack on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and some of the toughest questioning of the Pentagon leader since the war began.

Snip

In the day's most dramatic confrontation, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a leading critic of the Iraq campaign, told Rumsfeld that the war had become a "seeming intractable quagmire."

He recited a long list of what he called "gross errors and mistakes" in the U.S. military campaign and concluded with a renewed appeal for Rumsfeld to step down.

"In baseball, it's three strikes, you're out," Kennedy said before a session of the Armed Services Committee. "What is it for the secretary of defense? Isn't it time for you to resign?"

Rumsfeld paused, appearing to collect his thoughts and composure.

"Well, that is quite a statement," he responded, adding that none of the three four-star generals seated with him "agrees with you that we're in a quagmire and that there's no end in sight."



Semper Fi Ted