IRAQ: American troops gave US Secretary of Defence Mr Donald Rumsfeld a hero's welcome in Baghdad yesterday, although some said that after a difficult if brief war, they were ready to go home.
"Having someone like Rumsfeld come is damn good for morale," said Specialist Nathan Biggerstaff (21) from Missouri.
Mr Rumsfeld told 2,000 soldiers gathered at Baghdad International Airport that what they had accomplished was "truly remarkable".
"You rescued a nation, liberated a people. You have deposed a cruel dictator and you ended his threat to free nations," said the defence secretary, the mastermind of the war to oust Saddam Hussein and the most senior official to visit the Iraqi capital since US tanks rolled in three weeks ago.
A 30-year-old special forces officer in the crowd said that "the mere fact that they are sending someone of that calibre here this early is a tremendous message . . . It also says to us that we're going to be here until the job is done," said the soldier, who asked not to be named. Mr Rumsfeld has received kudos for the lightning attack to oust Saddam, although many troops said they were aware that he had come under criticism in the first days of the war for what many ex-commanders said was too small a force for the job.
"It was possibly the fastest march on a capital in modern military history," said Mr Rumsfeld, whose remarks were cheered.
Maj Keith Reid, from the US 3rd Infantry Division, said that what soldiers, many of whom have not been home for up to nine months, wanted most to hear was "no matter what you've heard, the folks back home support you". The 34-year-old Cleveland native said the Rumsfeld visit ranked alongside a recent trip by Tommy Franks, the general who commanded the war but who has not attained Mr Rumsfeld's star-like status in the US.
Others made it plain, however, what was really on their mind was getting away from the hot sun and the packs of rations that are higher on calories than on taste.