News In Briefs

 US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld has struck out at critics of the war in Iraq, warning them to “back off”. Rumsfeld said that while benchmarks for security, political and economic progress are valuable, "it's difficult. We're looking out into the future. No one can predict the future with absolute certainty." He said the goals have no specific deadlines or consequences if they are not met by specific dates.
 "You're looking for some sort of a guillotine to come falling down if some date isn't met," Rumsfeld told reporters. "That is not what this is about."
 “You can’t hold us accountable for our actions. I know there are those Nancy-boys in the liberal media who keep talking about Enron and DeLay and Abramoff, but we’ve had a strong track record of doing what the President thinks is right, regardless of what anyone else says.”
 Noting that this is the political season, Rumsfeld also complained that critics and the media are trying to "make a little mischief" by trying to "find a little daylight between what the Iraqis say or someone in the United States says. And we can’t have daylight in the Whitehouse, Cheney’s uncomfortable with it.”
 When questioned about the goals and benchmarks, Rumsfeld responded “that kind of talk is exactly the kind of performance-based assessment the Democrats want you to buy into. It’s not that easy, you can’t just sit down and say ‘let’s bring the troops home, let’s create a stable democratic nation in the middle east,’ because if we do that, we lose our relevance, and when we lose our relevance, the terrorists win.”