Rumsfeld frustrated that the U.S. is losing the media war.

"He's just flat wrong," Rumsfeld said in response to a question about the controversial prison during an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations. "We shouldn't close Guantanamo. We have several hundred terrorists — bad people, people that if let back out on the field would try to kill Americans. That's just a fact."

How do we know that these individuals pose a threat to America? Are we relying on our intelligence? I certainly hope not. What are they being charged with? Is there a trial date set yet? I can't imagine why the Muslims despise us?

Rumsfeld also said al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups have poisoned the Muslim public's view of the United States through deft use of the Internet and other modern communications methods that the American government has failed to master.

"Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but for the most part we — our country, our government — has not adapted," he said.

He quoted Ayman al-Zawahri, the chief lieutenant of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, as saying that their terrorist network is in a media battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims. Rumsfeld agreed, saying that the battle for public opinion is at least as important as the battles on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The extremist groups are able to act quickly on the information front, with relatively few people, while the U.S. government bureaucracy has yet to keep up in an age of e-mail, blogs and instant messaging, he said.

"We in the government have barely even begun to compete in reaching their audiences," Rumsfeld said.

I think that this really gets to the heart of how screwed up the thinking process in this administration really is. They really think that our problem is that the enemies propaganda is better then our propaganda!

It is not that Al Qaeda has a better public realtions machine, it is that they have so much more to work with. All Al Qaeda has to do is wait for the United States to shoot itself in the foot and then publicize it. We are our own worst enemy here!

We have invaded their country! We have killed their relatives! We have locked up hundreds of innocent Iraqi's! We have accused their country of crimes it did not commit! We have demonstrated incredible insensitivity to their religious and cultural beliefs! We have allowed long standing rivalries to erupt into a civil war!

We did all of that! It is not the message! It is the facts!

If you have to choose between two evils, are you not more likely to choose the evil that is composed of your people? We have lost the moral high ground. And we lost it to an organization that is killing its own people. How much do you have to suck to allow that to happen?