Hannity Visits with Rumsfeld in Iraq Pt. 1 (VIDEO)

December 12, 2006 H&C, Iraq, Telling It Like it Is, Video Comments

I apologize for not getting this posted last night, but Hannity had some fantastic footage of his very secret trip to Iraq, accompanything outgoing Defense Sec. Rumsfeld. There will be more tonight, and I’ll post it then, but here’s an excellent first segment.

This was probably my favorite part of the interview:

HANNITY: Secretary-designate Gates said during his hearing, “We’re not winning the war; we’re not losing the war.”

RUMSFELD: Yes.

HANNITY: Your thoughts on him, those comments, and do you have any advice for him?

RUMSFELD: No, I don’t have any advice for him. I wish him well. It’s a tough job, and I have every confidence he’ll do a good job at it.

I said it differently a couple of weeks ago in a memorandum I sent to the president and ended up in the press. And I said something to the effect that we can’t â€” the metrics for winning or losing are very difficult. Today, the president’s being measured on the amount of violence in Iraq, and basically in Baghdad. It’s three or four provinces out of 18 in one country.

That is not the measure; that is the wrong measure. If that were to be the only metric or measure of success or failure, my goodness, then you’ve given the game to the enemy. All they have to do is keep violence up in Baghdad, and the media that’s there will say, “Oh, my goodness, the terrorists are winning and everyone else is losing.” That’s not it.

But, regrettably, there are not good metrics to determine how it’s actually going on, what’s happening. The kinds of things one would want to know, if you really wanted to have your finger on the pulse of who’s winning and who’s losing in this global struggle against violent extremism, you would want to know how the terrorists and the extremists are doing in raising money.

How are they doing in recruiting? Are the things that are happening in the world advantaging them so that the cadre of people that support their position is increasing or is it decreasing?

We know we are killing â€” the president has done a fascinatic job of getting some 80 countries into a global coalition against extremists. And we know we’re putting pressure on them around the globe. We know it’s harder for them to do things; it’s harder to raise money; it’s harder to transfer money; it’s harder to move between countries; it’s harder to recruit; it’s harder to move weapons, but they still do it.

And the question is, is the pressure that’s being put on them greater than they are able to apply, in terms of raising money and recruiting? And because it is â€” you know, this is â€” it would be easier if you had big armies, big navies, and big air forces contesting each other. We don’t.

These people are determined. They are not going to sign a surrender on the USS Missouri in the Pacific Ocean someday. They’re not going to surrender. They’re going to have to be put down over time in a long struggle, much more like the Cold War than World War II or World War I.