Rumsfeld's soundbites take a back seat as he lashes out at waiting journalists

The Donald Rumsfeld soundbite has become something of an institution since America began banging the diplomatic drum for war on Iraq. The tortured syntax, the rolling eyes and the faintly incomprehensible, slightly menacing utterances. Perhaps this explained why, when he arrived at Heathrow to meet the British press yesterday, there was a mood of heightened expectation, almost sport, among the waiting hacks.

We were not to be disappointed. The US Secretary of Defence treated the national press to a one-man display of verbal shock and awe at the end of a whirlwind tour taking in Baghdad, Afghanistan and America's allies in the Gulf.

Although he may be a diminutive figure who is mocked on the British airwaves – notably BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House, which created a Rumsfeld Soundbite of the Week feature – the former Navy pilot who once served as the youngest head of the US Defence Department left commentators in no doubt about who is the only superpower in the world.

Mr Rumsfeld had earlier met Tony Blair in the heart of old "new" Europe – the Prime Minister's country seat in Berkshire. This was followed by a one-sided encounter with Geoff Hoon, closeted away for more than half an hour with the British Defence Secretary in the tiny reception room at the airport's Royal Suite. Senior military officers in full dress uniform gave the order "shush" to quieten the chatting reporters waiting just feet away as the two men, or rather Mr Rumsfeld, plotted the future military path of the coalition of the willing.

Through a crack in the wall we could see Mr Hoon, head bowed, a virtual statue as the man behind the world's most powerful military machine let rip. "Someone should tell Rummy to shut up," said one of the US press corps. "He won't let anyone get a word in."

Minutes later the two men emerged, but it was clear that Mr Hoon was not to be the only one on the receiving end of Mr Rumsfeld's unique verbal style.

Step forward Jon Snow, the veteran Channel 4 presenter. "Given the intimacy you had with planning for this war, what role did you have in the decisions to protect the oil ministry and the museum in Baghdad, and could I ... " Mr Rumsfeld cut him dead. "Just one at a time."

He tried again: "Mr Secretary, it does seem curious then that the oil ministry was so successfully protected and the hospital so unsuccessfully ..." Mr Rumsfeld snapped back: "Your questions have about eight or ten opinions in them, I notice."

Another reporter dared to challenge both defence secretaries. Mr Rumsfeld replied bafflingly: "Why don't you ask questions to one or the other and not multiple questions to each and let everyone go back?" Blank looks. Was this the soundbite we had been waiting for?

And then it happened – the Donald Rumsfeld Soundbite of the Week. Short, concise and perfectly bizarre. The questioner wanted to know how long US troops would be in Iraq, now that war was over. "I don't know – and it's not knowable," he declared to admiring glances.