Rumsfeld’s Iraq Trip May Not Resonate in U.S.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s Christmas Eve journey to Iraq drew a friendly reception from U.S. troops in three cities where insurgents have struck, but the trip may do little to quiet critics who believe that he has understaffed and under-equipped the war.

Rumsfeld displayed a more sympathetic side after weeks of criticism of both his war planning and his brusque style.

“I am very grateful and privileged to look in your eyes and have the chance to say thank you,” he said, sounding a theme he repeated at each stop.

Rumsfeld took a small pool of reporters with him from Washington on his surprise 12-hour visit to Iraq’s hot spots. He first stopped at the base near Mosul where 14 American soldiers were killed Tuesday in an apparent suicide attack on a mess tent. Eight other people were killed and 69 wounded by the blast.

After consoling the wounded, according to the Associated Press reporter traveling with the secretary, Rumsfeld flew under tight security around the country, telling soldiers that democracy requires perseverance.

“When it looks bleak, when one worries about how it’s going to come out, when one reads and hears the naysayers and the doubters who say it can’t be done, and that we’re in a quagmire here,” one should recall that there have been such doubters “throughout every conflict in the history of the world,” he told them.

He visited battle-weary infantry in Tikrit and Marines in Fallouja before going to Baghdad, where he met with top U.S. military commanders and the president of the interim Iraqi government, Ghazi Ajil Yawer.

Throughout, the secretary spent most of his time mingling with soldiers and getting his picture taken with them. He ate breakfast, lunch and dinner with the troops.

“He already was fairly popular with the troops in Iraq. His main problem is in the Washington Beltway and that’s going to be harder to solve,” said Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based public policy group.

Although a Pentagon spokesman said Rumsfeld’s trip had been planned “for some time” and holiday visits to troops in conflict zones are customary, one Capitol Hill aide, who asked not to be named, said that Rumsfeld seemed to regard the visit as “Image Rehab 101.” He noted that Rumsfeld also went to Iraq after the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal broke in May.

President Bush went to Iraq last Thanksgiving, but on Friday stuck to telephone calls to 10 troops from Camp David.

Despite Rumsfeld’s front-line charm offensive, the aide said, Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike are increasingly betting that the secretary will leave his post next summer after issuing the quadrennial defense review.

Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine and Trent Lott of Mississippi have joined several Democrats in a fusillade of complaints. McCain went so far as to say last week that he had “no confidence” in Rumsfeld.

The senatorial barrage came after Rumsfeld told a soldier preparing to enter Iraq, “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have.”

Rumsfeld was responding to a question from the soldier, who had described scavenging for scrap metal to protect vehicles because real armor wasn’t available.

But it wasn’t just Rumsfeld’s remarks that set off the lawmakers. The bombing Tuesday near Mosul, for example, launched anew the debate over the role of contractors -- who ran the dining hall -- and the hiring of Iraqis for jobs traditionally held by military personnel.

The Mosul attack stayed in the public eye on Christmas Eve as the Pentagon identified 13 of the soldiers killed in the attack.

The dead were: Capt. William W. Jacobsen, 31, of Charlotte, N.C.; Sgt. Maj. Robert D. O’Dell, 38, of Manassas, Va.; Sgt. 1st Class Paul D. Karpowich, 30, of Bridgeport, Pa.; Staff Sgt. Julian S. Melo, 47, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Staff Sgt. Darren D. VanKomen, 33, of Bluefield, W. Va.; Staff Sgt. Robert S. Johnson, 23, of Castro Valley, Calif.; Sgt. Lynn R. Poulin Sr., 47, of Freedom, Maine; Spc. Jonathan Castro, 21, of Corona, Calif.; Spc. Thomas J. Dostie, 20, of Sommerville, Maine; Spc. Cory M. Hewitt, 26, of Stewart, Tenn.; Spc. Nicholas C. Mason, 20, of King George, Va.; Spc. David A. Ruhren, 20, of Stafford, Va. and Pfc. Lionel Ayro, 22, of Jeanerette, La.

Six of the fatalities had been based at Ft. Lewis, Wash. Four of the dead were assigned to engineering battalions in the Army National Guard.

The criticism of Rumsfeld “reflects years of growing concern and frustration about both his style and the substance of his policies,” Thompson said.

The secretary challenged Congress from the start of his tenure, choosing not to hire Capitol Hill staffers for Pentagon management positions. Also, “he sometimes refused to provide information like e-mail that had been requested,” Thompson said.

Even Rumsfeld supporters agree with such criticism, to a point.

Rumsfeld “was in deep trouble before 9/11 because he’s not good at communicating with either generals or Congress,” said Patrick Clawson, deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

But at the moment, “relations with generals are quite good,” Clawson said, in part because, despite the mess-tent attack and others, “there has been extremely little violence outside the ‘death triangle’ and in Kurdish areas.”

If Rumsfeld stays in the good graces of uniformed leadership, “congressional critics are going to have to lump it,” Clawson said.

In the long term, the Christmas Eve trip will do little to change Rumsfeld’s fate or legacy, said Michael O’Hanlon, a defense policy expert at the Brookings Institution.

“In a broader sense, his fundamental role in history is unchanged,” O’Hanlon said. “He did a great job in overthrowing Saddam Hussein and a mediocre job in stabilizing Iraq.”

Times staff writer Johanna Neuman in Washington contributed to this report. Wire services were used in compiling it.