Rummy In Wonderland

From Stars and Stripes, though it reads more like Lewis Carroll:

In response to a USA Today story Monday about a Marine Corps colonel in Iraq who said he repeatedly asked for 1,000 more Marines, Rumsfeld said such a request was not an indication that there are too few U.S. troops in Iraq.

"The idea ... that because somebody wishes they had more [troops] at a certain moment suggests the total number is wrong is a non sequitur, obviously a non sequitur," Rumsfeld said.

--http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=30855

More vintage Rumsfeld "wisdom" below...

"There's 137,500 U.S. forces and a good slug of coalition forces, and how they are parceled out and allocated within the country of Iraq is for Gen. [George] Casey and Gen. J.R. Vines to determine," Rumsfeld said.

Myers, meanwhile, said that "more troops are needed, and they are being provided by the Iraqis. There's 178,000-plus of them."

Neither Myers nor Rumsfeld replied directly to a question about how many Iraqi security forces are actually able to operate independent of coalition forces, a query the defense secretary dismissed as "not a useful construct."

I love that, "not a useful construct." Unlike his and W's and Condi's and Bliar's Iraqmire, which is oh-so-useful a construction.

•  What comprises a "good slug"?

  There's less than 5,000 "coalition" force members, right? So that's a little over 3.5% of the total.

  Woo, Woo, Mr. Rumsfailed.

  by fly on Thu Aug 11, 2005 at 02:22:17 PM PDT

•  It's all over but the running...

  The administration is starting to sound like Richard Nixon in 1969, when he said

  My fellow Americans, I am sure you can recognize from what I have said that we really only have two choices open to us if we want to end this war.

  --I can order an immediate, precipitate withdrawal of all Americans from Vietnam without regard to the effects of that action.

  --Or we can persist in our search for a just peace through a negotiated settlement if possible, or through continued implementation of our plan for Vietnamization if necessary-a plan in which we will withdraw all of our forces from Vietnam on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the South Vietnamese become strong enough to defend their own freedom.

  I have chosen this second course.

  It is not the easy way.

  It is the right way.

  This time, of course, we don't even have anyone to negotiate a little mercy with...

  Arrgggghhhh!

  by perro amarillo on Thu Aug 11, 2005 at 02:39:28 PM PDT

•  As we sat here reading and writing in

  front of our computers today, 5 more of our servicemen died in the line of duty bringing the total to 40 for the month of August to date.

  Go ahead Mr. Rumsfeld, tell us again that we don't need more forces there.

   

  by nupstateny on Thu Aug 11, 2005 at 03:23:23 PM PDT