Myers: 'Unknowable' When Forces Return

[Barrett808]

Myers: 'Unknowable' When Forces Return
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON - The top U.S. military officer said Thursday he could not estimate with confidence how long American forces will have to stay in Iraq (news - web sites).

"I really do believe it's unknowable," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an interview with a group of reporters. "If I gave a good professional estimate, then that would be a standard that people would point to and, knowing that we can't know it perfectly, we'd get hammered."

Myers also said he was not worried about the possibility that the Iraqis will ask U.S. forces to leave the country once Iraqi sovereignty is restored this summer: "That is not a particular concern."

Pressed on the matter of how long U.S. forces might stay, Myers said, "There is not a range in my own mind."

"We're going to have to let events dictate" when the military can leave, he said.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040219/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_iraq_military

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Has he been taking public speaking lessons from that famous linguist

Rumsfeld?

[jayfish]

2. Does That Make It...

a known unknown then?

Jay

[Just Me]

7. *LOL* Rummie's known unknowns and unknowable unknowns,...

,...for a knowable perpetual war. Geez. Have we ever allowed anyone to get buy with such bullshit ambiguity which allows these people to avoid accountability and responsibility?

[saigon68]

11. Gen. Richard Myers= Corporate stooge

The only thing the fine "General" KNOWS is that HE will soon retire----
and obtain a fine, lucrative, private sector job at Boeing or McDonald-Douglas or Northrup.

So it goes in the Great Democracy

[sangh0]

3. I know how long it will be

There's a good reason why Bush* has no exit plan for Iraq - we have no intention of leaving.

We are spending billions of dollars for four military bases in Iraq, complete with permanent housing and even swimming pools. We aren't doing that because we want to coddle the future Iraqi Army.

[Mountainman]

4. Talk like this makes the draft seem more imminent

Would you volunteer to join the military if your were told that you could be sent to Iraq and that your leaders don't know when troops would not be needed there? You could be volunteering for an early death.

At least in Nam if you served more than one tour you volunteered for it.

[priller]

5. More evidence of the Bush admin's penchant for active ignorance

O'Neill mentioned several times in his book that Cheney, Rummy, Rove, and many others had this same kind of "who can know?" attitude. Like on the tax cuts and their effect on the deficit, they were like "no one really knows for sure what effect it will have, so why not give something to our base?"

It also shows they either (a) have no intention of leaving, ever, or (b) really have no plan for future at all.

[StClone]

8. Gotta Love it

Active ignorance.

They can make quick decisive decisions because they know what needs to be done. Yet, they are overwhelmed by their lack of ability to respond to questions once it is proven that the outcome of their actions were nothing like they indicated.

[Jim Sagle]

6. Who writes his stuff? H. P. Lovecraft?

[Jacobin]

9. But, "there's light at the end of the tunnel"

:-)

Famous Vietnam phrases come to mind.

[The Political Eye]

10. Unknowable? Sounds Like Mumbo Jumbo

You have to enjoy a Joint Chief using the word unknowable.

It's funny and wildly sad at the same time.

[proud patriot]

12. I'm waiting for an apology from Aaron Brown

:grr:

[Tracer]

13. This "unknowable" is just the same b.s. ...

... as Rummy, Wolfowitz & Co. said about budgeting for next year's Iraq budget. It's "unknowable", therefore we won't budget one red cent, but will put it all into supplementals.

If, at a previous job, I had told my boss that I couldn't come up with a budget figure for my department because it was "unknowable", he would have fired me for incompetence.

[yellowcanine]

14. But General, is it a known unknown or an unknown unknown?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[Voltaire99]

15. This much is true

What can be said of a people that allow themselves to be ruled by such as General Myers?

Not that they are a free people; that much is knowable.

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. This interview gets even better

When General Myers admits that they have been wrong about everything.


"Actually, the things we've sat around and talked about before have been wrong on every count," he said with a chuckle. "So that's probably another reason why I don't want to" discuss it. Although he did not mention it, U.S. officials had assumed when Baghdad fell to U.S. forces last April that tens of thousands of troops could be withdrawn within a few months.


Excuse me? Now you admit you've gotten everything wrong and you still have a friggin job? Myers should be warming a bench at the Hague for his stupidity, instead of continuing to be the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for crying out loud.

Keep in mind, Myers is one of the key people in charge on the morning of 9-11, when he sat on his hands until 3 of the 4 jets had hit their targets. He went into Max Cleland's office knowing that the first tower had been hit, and had the nerve to tell the secretary not to disturb him. Apparently, his meeting with Cleland was more important than an ongoing terrorist attack.

[BiggJawn]

17. Didn't he hear General "Dirty" Sanchez?

We're gonna be there for YEARS...
I sure wish all these over-paid clowns could get on the same page.

One guy says we're out in June, another says years, someone else wiggles his fingers in the air and say "Goodness, Gracious! Who knows?"

Never mind the intelligence, they need to work on inter-department communications....

[saigon68]

18. Dupe n/t

[saigon68]

19. Kick