It sounds to me that Rumsfeld, as he should, appreciates Galloway's input:
On the way out, the defense secretary said, in parting: "I want you to know that I love soldiers and I care about soldiers. All of us here do." Well, one would hope so.
In parting, Galloway told me, he informed Rumsfeld, “I want you to know that I'm going to keep kicking your butt, to keep you focused.”
Rumsfeld replied, “That's okay, I can take it.”
Two days later now, I asked Joe about Rumsfeld's central belief -- that he was getting the true story on Iraq and the state of the military and Galloway was not.
“Besides talking to people, I get a tremendous amount of e-mail from people in the military and in the Pentagon who read my column and react to it,” he replied. “They are concerned. What I'm hearing is that 99% of these readers are 100% in favor of what I am writing, and ask me to keep at it. Unfortunately, if I am right, the military is in a lot of trouble.”
Galloway's reputation is well earned, and he cares about the troops, and their mission. I think he recognizes that Rumsfeld does too. What more do you want? Rumsfeld has enough "yes men" as anyone in his position is bound to have. He would be stupid not to value some "here's how I see it, like it or lump it" guys like Joe Galloway. In fact he probably wishes he had more.