RUMMY IN 2003

Just in case you've forgotten, (Via Atrios) ThinkProgress has a pretty good timeline of Fredo's war on Iraq. I looked up a more complete version of just one of their quotes from Administration officials, the infamous "dead enders" claim. There are bonus lines from one of Fredo's generals and Wolfowitz.

Rumsfeld blames Iraq problems on 'pockets of dead-enders'
Posted 6/18/2003 3:15 PM Updated 6/18/2003 5:48 PM
USA Today


WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday played down recent deadly attacks on Americans in Iraq, equating those losses with everyday violence in large U.S. cities.

Asked at Pentagon press conference about the Iraqi resistance, Rumsfeld described it as "small elements" of 10 to 20 people, not large military formations or networks of attackers. He said there "is a little debate" in the administration over whether there is any central control to the resistance, which officials say is coming from Saddam's former Baath Party, Fedayeen paramilitary, and other loyalists.

"In those regions where pockets of dead-enders are trying to reconstitute, Gen. (Tommy) Franks and his team are rooting them out," Rumsfeld said, referring to the U.S. commander in Iraq. "In short, the coalition is making good progress."

On Capitol Hill, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said, "We are still in a phase where we need some significant combat power to take on these remnants of the old regime." "I think these people are the last remnants of a dying cause," he told the House Armed Services Committee. He said U.S. forces "have the sympathy of the population, not the surviving elements of the Baathist regime."

In Iraq, Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno said raids begun Sunday had resulted in the capture of a number of senior Iraqi figures and the seizure of millions of dollars they were using to finance continued fighting. "We are seeing military activity throughout our zone, but I really qualify it as militarily insignificant," Odierno told Pentagon reporters in a video conference from Tikrit. He added that the attacks are "having no impact on the way we conduct business on a day-to-day basis."