I have never painted a rosy picture. I have been very measured in my words, and you’d have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I have been excessively optimistic.First of all, who says "dickens of a time?" What a rapscallion that Donald is. Secondly...Oh, really?
Feb. 7, 2003: “It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”Well, he said flowers (and candy) not roses. I guess it depends on what the meaning of "is" is, right Mr. Secretary?
Feb. 20 2003: “‘Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?’ Jim Lehrer asked the defense secretary on PBS’ The News Hour. ‘There is no question but that they would be welcomed,’ Rumsfeld replied, referring to American forces.”
More to come, I'm sure, here.
2 comments:
Regarding your secondly: You're right. It'd be painting a rosy picture indeed even to charitably use the word "disingenuous" with respect to Rumsfeld's words here. At best, he's trying to hid behind that modifier "excessively," which is just beyond lame.
As for "First of all, who says "dickens of a time?", well ... ahem! I've known a lot of people who use that phrase, and still do (they're not rubes, either). And the word rapscallion (which I've used recently, as it happens) should definitely make a comeback--no offense, but it sure beats what's taken its place, most especially in recent generations.
Ya whippersnapper.
Maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't the exchange with HRC about the insurgency? Whereas the quotes you have selected are pre-invasion quotes about deposing Saddam.
Its fair to say plan for deposing Saddam worked far better initially than the detractors predicted but that, as the detractors have charged, plans for dealing with fairly precictable post-invasion events like the "insurgency" were not nearly effective.
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