Reframing the Question?

Wow. Two Female Suicide Bombers Kill 27 in Iraq
Not to downplay the fact that so many people were killed, but I thought the most insane part of the article was this:

On Monday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged that the insurgency has been stronger than anticipated, but he also said the news media have focused on the war's growing body count rather than progress that has been achieved.
"To be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in
Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks," Rumsfeld said in remarks at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

I'm sorry. I thought that terrorist attacks were bad. Apparently, Rumsfeld would rather define success as "lack of an electrical grid or functional economy... despite terrorist attacks, but plenty of carpetbaggers and loads of war profiteering."
The insurgency is stronger than we anticipated... please stop reporting on it.
Please don't look at the burning car. Instead, check out these functional cars! There's loads of them! How about this new tactical weaponry? Isn't it shiny?
Sounds like Rumsfeld would rather see the kind of news you have to pay for.

AND

What HUBRIS this administration has to kill people all over the world in the name of "protecting 'merica from evil-doers" and then not follow through with the recommendations of the 9/11 panel. I don't seem to remember anything political about the 9/11 panel's recommendations... that probably means that implementing them wouldn't get anyone any votes. It's either that, or that they've found some way to politicize or argue over how to implement the recomendations... Either way, I feel so much safer now! Iraqi terrorists are blowing up hotels in Jordan... that never happened before, did it? Iraqis are blowing up their own police force... that never happened before, did it? Thanks for the infighting!

U.S. Is Given Failing Grades By 9/11 Panel

The federal government received failing and mediocre grades yesterday from the former Sept. 11 commission, whose members said in a final report that the Bush administration and Congress have balked at enacting numerous reforms that could save American lives and prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
The 10-member bipartisan panel...issued a "report card" that included 5 F's, 12 D's and two "incompletes" in categories including airline passenger screening and improving first responders' communication system.
...in nearly half the categories, the government merited a D, an F or an incomplete grade, according to the report card. Kean and other commission members said at a news conference in Washington that all the goals should be achievable, but that many have languished amid political skirmishing and bureaucratic turf battles.
"None of this is rocket science," said John F. Lehman (R), a Navy secretary in the Reagan administration. "None of it is in the 'too hard' category."