Timeline for Iraq Pullout Would Aid Insurgents, Rumsfeld Says

Timothy Williams, The New York Times, June 23, 2005

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that setting a timeline for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq would give a "lifeline for terrorists." And in a spirited defense of the war, he invoked Abraham Lincoln and the American revolution.
But several Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee questioned the progress of the war effort and the Bush administration's handling of the war. During a particularly dramatic sequence, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, called the war a "quagmire" that had been "consistently and grossly mismanaged" by Mr. Rumsfeld. He also accused the defense secretary of making a series of misleading comments before and during the war.
"In baseball, it's three strikes you're out," Mr. Kennedy said. "Isn't it time for you to resign?"
After pausing to take a breath, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "Senator, I've offered my resignation to the president twice." President Bush did not accept the resignations, the defense secretary said.