http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20050727/ap_on_re_mi_ea/rumsfeldWhy do I smell a rat?
Could this be cover for a withdrawal (cut and run)? Are the Chicken Hawks preparing something like, "The Iraqi Government is now prepared to deal with the insurgency on it's own. Mission Accomplished!"
or,
Could it be PR to cover Bush's ass? i.e., "Despite our efforts to train and equip the Iraqi Army, insurgents from Syria and Iran continue to flood across the border requiring us to stay and complete the mission."
"Rumsfeld has often criticized Iran and Syria for meddling in Iraq's affairs. In his remarks Wednesday, he put the main onus on Iraqi leaders to do more to fix the problem.
"They need to be aggressively communicating with their neighbors to see that foreign terrorists stop coming across those borders and that their neighbors do not harbor insurgents and finance insurgents," he said in an in-flight interview with reporters accompanying him from Tajikistan."
So, is it a repeat of the Nixonian "Peace with Honor" (aka - Let's get the hell out there before they really beat our ass.)
or,
Is it just a preelection ploy to lull the American people into believing that "progress" is being made despite all the evidence?
Personally, I think that it's just more bullshit designed to quiet the growing distaste and disgust for the war/occupation by the American people.