Senator McCain: “You said there’s a possibility of the situation in Iraq evolving into civil war.
Is that correct?”
General Pace: “I did say that, yes, sir.”
Senator McCain: “Did you anticipate this situation a year ago?”
General Pace: “No, sir.”
The harshest criticism of Mr. Rumsfeld and administration’s war-fighting policy came from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, who said: “Yes, we hear a lot of happy talk and rosy scenarios, but because of the administration’s strategic blunders and, frankly, the record of incompetence in executing, you are presiding over a failed policy.
“Given your track record, Secretary Rumsfeld, why should we believe your assurances now?”
Mr. Rumsfeld responded with a trademark colloquialism. “My goodness,” he said.
After a subsequent closed-door session for members of Congress with the defense secretary and the two generals, Senator Clinton for the first time called on President Bush to accept Mr. Rumsfeld’s resignation.
Senator McCain said the orders to move troops from one violence-plagued part of Iraq to another was no better than playing a game of “whack-a-mole.”
nytimes.com |
