Rummy now set to testify on Iraq at public hearing today, per MSNBC

[babylonsister]

just now. I guess the pressure got to him. I think/hope he'll be treated like a pinata.

This is from yesterday:

Rumsfeld snub of war hearing draws fire "

Edit to update link:
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/08/02/ap2923536.html


WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he essentially was too busy to testify at a public hearing on the Iraq war, raising a new furor on Capitol Hill over the three-year-old conflict.

Speaking to Pentagon reporters Wednesday, Rumsfeld said he thought it was enough for him to attend a private briefing with the entire Senate on Thursday. Citing his crowded calendar, he declined the Senate Armed Services Committee's request to testify publicly on Thursday morning.

Rumsfeld's decision drew protests from committee Democrats who said much had changed in the six months since he last testified and took questions from the committee. The request for his appearance came from the committee chairman, Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., and the top Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan.

<snip>

Rumsfeld also offered an explanation for why as many as two-thirds of the Army's brigades and many National Guard units are rated not ready for combat. He said the Pentagon is wrestling with standards that would best describe the condition of the units. And he noted that highly experienced units coming home from Iraq leave a lot of equipment behind, and as a result are considered not combat ready.

"The Army today is vastly better than it was two, four, six or eight years ago," he said. "It has much more equipment, much better equipment, and it's better trained and more experienced."