Rumsfeld Faces Troops' Families: “I'd Love To Be Santa Claus. I'm Not”...

Associated Press Robert Burns August 27, 2006 at 11:45 AM
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In a lively but polite give-and-take, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld fielded questions Saturday from wives and other family members of Alaska-based soldiers whose combat tours inIraq were abruptly extended just as they prepared to return home this month.

"It is something we don't want to do," Rumsfeld told several hundred family members who gathered in a gymnasium at nearby Ft. Wainwright, home of the 172nd Stryker Brigade. The unit's deployment to Iraq was extended by up to four months to bolster U.S. firepower in the Baghdad area.

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