Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld congratulated top American military commanders of the Iraq war on Monday and fired barbs at critics of the invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein . "There were a lot of hand-wringers around, weren't there?" he said with a grin to cheers from military headquarters troops. On a tour to thank Gulf leaders for support in the conflict and to discuss potential postwar changes in U.S. forces in the region, Rumsfeld quoted Winston Churchill as he spoke to 1,000 American soldiers at the base from where the war was run.

Noting Churchill's remark about the Battle of Britain against Nazi Germany that "never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," Rumsfeld said of critics of the war: "Never have so many been so wrong about so much."

Standing beside General Tommy Franks, commander of the operation, he lauded senior officers and headquarters staff, saying the war was historic despite critics who said Iraq should not have been invaded or that too few troops were used, leading to violence and looting once Saddam was toppled.

Rumsfeld and Franks countered that the Iraqi people were now free from oppression and that the war was run with "compassion" for the civilian population.

They did not mention that U.S.-led forces have so far not found any Iraqi chemical or biological weapons. Washington said
a major reason for the invasion was to eliminate weapons of mass destruction that Iraq was alleged to possess.

"When the dust has settled in Iraq, military historians will study this war," Rumsfeld said.

"They will examine the unprecedented combination of power, precision, speed, flexibility -- and I would add also compassion -- that was employed."

CHANGES IN U.S. MILITARY PRESENCE

On Monday's second leg of a Gulf tour that began in the United Arab Emirates, Rumsfeld was also holding talks with Qatar's ruling emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

He was due to meet Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill later in the day. Australian troops are in Iraq along with U.S. and British forces.

U.S. defense officials have refused to say whether Rumsfeld will visit Iraq.

He is discussing with Gulf leaders a fresh Pentagon assessment of possible changes in its costly military presence in the Middle East, with the removal of Saddam seen as potentially allowing a reduction in the U.S. presence in the politically sensitive region.

U.S. defense officials say that Qatar is likely to remain a key center of U.S. military power in the Gulf.

This small and wealthy oil state of 800,000 people, a peninsula jutting into the Gulf along the Saudi Arabian coast, began allowing an increasing U.S. military presence after the 1991 Gulf War .

U.S. attack and other jets used Qatar's big Al Udeid Air Base during the war and the modern command center was built on sands not far from the capital, Doha, in a matter of months.

Military analysts say they expect the United States to sharply reduce its military presence in Saudi Arabia, a key ally for decades, and perhaps move some air power from there to Al Udeid. Washington also has a major military presence in Iraq's southern neighbor, Kuwait.

The New York Times reported on Monday that the U.S. military was transferring its major Middle East air operations center from Saudi Arabia to Qatar this week.

"Whether we'll stay there or not -- not sure," the newspaper quoted Franks as saying in the United Arab Emirates.

"But we do know that since we have it, we want to be able to run some operations out of it. So for the foreseeable future, and I don't know how long that is, we're going to move it over there and going to start running some air ops out of it."

PHOTO CAPTION
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met leaders of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates on April 27, 2003, launching a tour to thank Gulf allies for help in the Iraq war and discuss possible new American military arrangements in the region. Rumsfeld landed in Abu Dhabi six hours late after a mechanical problem delayed his aircraft, causing him to miss a planned visit to Afghanistan . Officials said he hoped to go to Kabul later in the week. Rumsfeld speaks to reporters in this April 26, 2003 file photo. (Luke Frazza/Pool/Reuters)