Rumsfeld Learns From Mistakes, Stops Predicting End Of Iraq War

[JABBS]

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declined yesterday to predict when U.S. forces would be out of Iraq.

"I've avoided predicting the timing," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon.

Well, not exactly. In fact, Rumsfeld has made several predictions about how long troops would be needed in Iraq.

Rumsfeld may have tried to spin reporters yesterday, but history tells a different story. You'd think the Bush Administration would learn after five-plus years in office that their public statements are recorded, and can easily be used for comparison and contrast. Guess not.

Before the war began, for example, Rumsfeld made two rather rosy predications about how long troops would be needed in Iraq. In November, 2002, he said: "The Gulf War in the 1990s lasted five days on the ground. I can’t tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months, but it certainly isn’t going to last any longer than that."

Three months later, Rumsfeld offered a similar statement: "It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

With President Bush now saying a future U.S. president and a future Iraqi government would decide when U.S. troops would leave, six days, six weeks and six months have been replaced with six years as a rosy prediction.

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This item first appeared at JABBS.

[CrispyQ]

1. It's not that they can't learn . . .

You'd think the Bush Administration would learn after five-plus years in office that their public statements are recorded, and can easily be used for comparison and contrast. Guess not.


...it's that they don't give a shit.

And no one holds them accountable. :cry:

[JABBS]

2. Yep

And when someone does hold them accountable, they are immediately blasted as hating bush, un-american, soft on terror, and wimpy.

[spindrifter]

3. What is the pathology here?

The condition that's most associated with pathological lying is sociopathy or antisocial personality disorder, which is characterized by a lack of regard for others' feelings and manipulating others for personal gain (or sometimes just plain amusement).

http://health.ivillage.com/mentalhealth/mhdissociate/0,,6fll,00.html

Could that be Rummy?

[CrispyQ]

4. It's the entire fucking cabal!

All of them are like this. The evil dick, the dimson, wolfowitz, condi, rummy, all of them. What I'm beginning to wonder is, are the 30% of their followers deluded or are these character traits they admire?

[JABBS]

6. a lot of politicians

are living in a pre-Internet world, where fact-checking on flip-flopping is harder to do. you can do a google search and find out dozens of things Rumsfeld has said about U.S. troops, and compare and contrast.

[spindrifter]

7. Interesting, isn't it? Some of these

guys don't understand that in a matter of moments some good internet jockeys will pull up exactly what they said, when they said it, the response it got and a video to go with it. These are the same guys that don't understand that their emails leave a nice trail--as good as a bear in the woods looking for the honeypot. I really have to conclude that in the face of the truth these guys will still prevaricate.

[silverlib]

5. Yea, but they didn't mind predicting the WMD's ...

and they don't mind predicting the future danger of Iran...

and they don't mind predicting terrorist attacks that keep the public in their "fear" grip.

So, now they will just become selective in their predictions and ever mindful of which extreme and inaccurate predictions most benefit the empire?

[0007]

8. I'm surprised that Rummy isn't hanging upside down in some

meat packing house.