Waaaaaah. Could it be because the public was told that invading Iraq had to happen because of WMD and a connection to 9/11? Could it be because the war was sold as a walk in the park and the US would be welcomed? If the administration wants to continue selling this war as a success, fine, but quit the whining about the other side that gets reported. If it is such a success, why are the civilian and military deaths still so high? The administration has failed over and over to be honest so of course people are not going to believe their hype and propaganda.
His criticism of the press, a theme to which Mr. Rumsfeld returns frequently in public and private statements, came only a few days after the Pentagon acknowledged that it had paid Iraqi newspapers to publish news articles that presented a positive view of developments in Iraq.Gosh, to think people don't believe the administration.
That disclosure "has been pounded in the media," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "We don't know what the facts are yet."
A student in the audience whether the administration believed before the 2003 invasion of Iraq that reconstructing the country would be "easy."
"There is no question there were people who believed that they would be met as liberators, and indeed they were for a period and still are in a number of parts of the country," Mr. Rumsfeld replied. "But anyone who had an optimistic view, I think has confronted reality. And it is clearly not easy. War is never easy. And you never heard a word like that out of my mouth, I don't believe."
The staff of the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, later released a transcript of a September 2002 interview Mr. Rumsfeld gave several reporters in which he said American troops had been welcomed after invading Afghanistan. "That's what would happen in Iraq," it quoted Mr. Rumsfeld as saying.
