US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has rejected claims that the Iraq war has become a quagmire, but warned Iraq's government not to delay political developments such as drafting a constitution.
During a tense Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Army Gen. John Abizaid, who as head of Central Command is the top US commander in the Middle East, declined to endorse Vice President Dick Cheney's assessment that Iraq's insurgency was in its “last throes".
General Abizaid said the insurgents' strength had not diminished and that more foreign fighters were coming into Iraq than six months ago. “There's a lot of work to be done against the insurgency,” Gen Abizaid said. “I'm sure you'll forgive me from criticizing the vice president."
“This war has been consistently and grossly mismanaged,“ Senator Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, told Rumsfeld. “And we are now in a seemingly intractable quagmire."
“Our troops are dying. And there really is no end in sight. And the American people, I believe, deserve leadership worthy of the sacrifices that our fighting forces have made, and they deserve the real facts. And I regret to say that I don't believe that you have provided either,” Senator Kennedy added.
“Well, that is quite a statement,” Mr Rumsfeld, flanked by top US commanders, responded. “First let me say that there isn't a person at this table who agrees with you that we're in a quagmire and that there's no end in sight."
“The suggestion by you that people - me or others - are painting a rosy picture is false,” said Mr Rumsfeld.
“The fact is from the beginning of this we have recognized that this is a tough business, that it is difficult, that it is dangerous, and that it is not predictable,” Rumsfeld added.
Senator Kennedy asked Mr Rumsfeld, “Isn't it time for you to resign?“
Mr Rumsfeld noted he twice offered his resignation to President George W. Bush last year during the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, and that Bush declined to accept it. “That's his call."
General George Casey, who commands the 138,000 US troops in Iraq, and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed the war had not become a quagmire.
There have been 1,725 US military deaths in a war that began in March 2003 and 13,074 US troops have been wounded, the Pentagon said. The May death toll of 80 American troops was the highest since January and June's death count is on pace to match that of May.
Insurgents have escalated a campaign of bombings taking a growing toll on Iraqi civilians, with hundreds killed since the Shi'ite-led government was formed two months ago.