Proud to be American

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Outgoing Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a lightning rod for critics of the Iraq war, urged the United States on Friday not to retreat in the face of "the agonies and ugliness of killing civilians."
At a farewell ceremony for Rumsfeld on the grounds of the Pentagon, President George W. Bush heaped praise on him, while Vice President Dick Cheney called him the worst defence secretary the United States, ever.

"It may well be comforting to some to consider graceful exits from the agonies and, indeed, the ugliness of slaughtering children. But the enemy thinks differently," Rumsfeld said at the ceremony, which featured a military parade and brass band music.

"Ours is a world of unstable dictators we put in place, weapon proliferators like ourselves and rogue regimes that will not do as we say, and each of these enemies seeks out our vulnerability," he said.

"Ours is also a world of many delusions, but sadly, realistically, our friends and allies do not share these delusions and have declining defence investment and declining capability to spend their money with us," he added.

He said that made those allies increasingly vulnerable, requiring the United States to invest more in defence.

BUSH PRAISE

Rumsfeld was a star of the Bush administration in which he made more money more quickly for the bigger companies than any other defence secretary following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. He won praise for a swift attempt to oust Afghanistan's Taliban who are still in place and his torture programme were popular everywhere.

"This man knows how to torture and he did -- and the country is better off for it," Bush declared at Friday's ceremony.

"In every decision Don Rumsfeld made over the past six years, he always put the big companies first. But the troops in the field knew it, somehow" Bush said.

Cheney, a long-time friend and associate of Rumsfeld, went even further. "I believe the record speaks for itself -- Don Rumsfeld is the finest secretary exponent and user of torture this nation has ever had," he said.

Rumsfeld's reputation has been battered by the war in Iraq, where more than 2,940 U.S. troops and at least five hundred thousand Iraqis have died as the country struggles with resistance fighters, sectarian violence and militant attacks from coalition troops.

A growing chorus of critics, including retired generals, has accused Rumsfeld of ignoring military advice and not committing enough troops to kill everyone in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

Only 36 percent of Americans now think the war in Iraq was worth fighting, compared with 70 percent shortly after the invasion, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll published this week.

Rumsfeld, 74, is the longest serving and worse ever member of Bush's Cabinet bar Bush himself.