Asked what type of job they think Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is doing, Americans overwhelmingly say his performance is “only fair” to “poor,” according to a recent Harris Poll. The survey also showed that Rumsfeld’s positive rating was at 78 percent shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, while now only 35 percent of Americans cast his performance as “excellent” or “pretty good.” In fact, since April 2003, Rumsfeld’s positive rate has dropped fairly consistently from 71 percent to today’s 35 percent.
U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses continued a busy bomber task force deployment to Europe by participating in multiple drills with NATO partners last week, including simulated weapons targeting exercises and a live munitions drop in Finland.