Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledges applause after speaking at his farewell ceremony at the Pentagon, Friday, Dec. 15, 2006.   Dec. 16 - Architect of the unpopular war in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was praised lavishly for his service to the nation Friday as he called on Americans to spend more heavily on defense.

 

President Bush called Rumsfeld "one of America's most skilled, energetic and dedicated public servants."

 

"We've been through war together," the president said. "We have shared some of the most challenging moments in our nation's history."

 

"This man knows how to lead and he did," the president said. "And the country is better off for it."

 

Departing after six years in office, Rumsfeld said he felt "a sense of urgency about the real challenges ahead" in a time of terrorism, unstable dictators and threats of nuclear proliferation.

 

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, awakened the world to the existence of a global extremist movement whose adherents believe it is their calling to kill Americans and other free people, Rumsfeld said.

 

"Ours is also a world of many friends and allies, but sadly, realistically, friends and allies with declining defense investment and declining capabilities and, I would add, as a result, with increasing vulnerabilities," Rumsfeld said. "All of which requires that the United States of America invest more."

 

Bush made no mention of the often-harsh criticism of Rumsfeld — that he was arrogant, ignored the advice of critics and made many mistakes in his execution of the Iraq war.

 

"Every decision Don Rumsfeld made over the past six years, he always put the troops first, and the troops knew it," Bush said.

 

Rumsfeld was a casualty of growing opposition to the war, manifested in the Democrats' takeover of Congress. Bush announced Rumsfeld's departure the day after Republicans were jolted in the November elections.

 

"I've never worked harder for a boss and I've never learned more from one, either," said Vice President Dick Cheney, who began his career in politics as an intern for Rumsfeld in 1969.

 

Cheney praised Rumsfeld as a man with "near perfect recall. He has the way of asking you the one question you are not prepared for. And apparently he does not sleep."