Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) accused Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of “presiding over a failed policy” in Iraq during a terse confrontation at an Aug. 3 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. Clinton told Rumsfeld “You appeared before this committee and made many comments and presented many assurances that have, frankly, proven to be unfulfilled.” Clinton asked, “Why should we believe your assurances now?” to which Rumsfeld replied, “I have never painted a rosy picture.” To refute the Secretary’s claim, the senator released a statement, which lists Rumsfeld quotes from hearings and public interviews from 2002-06. There’s nothing like being a sitting duck.
Australia’s military will help the Pentagon pursue so-called “air-breathing” hypersonic weapons and more under the U.S.-run Allied Prototyping Initiative, the U.S. Defense Department said Nov. 30. The Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE) initiative “will be essential to the future of hypersonic research and development, ensuring the U.S. and…