May 09, 2004
Obvious Followup #0004
From Donald H. Rumsfeld's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the following exchange between Senator Mark Pryor, and Rumsfeld:
PRYOR: Mr. Secretary, let me say this, that there's been a pattern that I have to bring to your attention from our perspective, and if I can just say this. In the last seven days some of things, some of the revelations that we've heard about Iraq, you know, first, for months and months we've asked, "Do you need more troops inside Iraq?"
And in the last few days, even though you've assured us many, many times and many people at the Pentagon and the White House have said, "No," we now have learned that you do.
Secondly, we've asked for weeks and weeks and weeks, maybe months -- Senator Byrd could probably tell you more than I could about that -- about whether you'll need a supplemental.
And originally, the answer was, "No," at least not until very, very late in the year. And now it appears that you do.
We've been surprised on those two occasions, now we're surprised today.
And, Mr. Secretary, I must tell you that we do not like these type of surprises here in the Congress. And I don't want to sound glib in asking this question, but let me ask: We know the photographs are coming out, but do you anticipate anything else coming out in a relation to this story that we need to know about today?
RUMSFELD: Well, I'm certain there will be. You've got six investigations going on. You can be absolutely certain that these investigations will discover things, as investigations do, and that they'll elevate other individuals for prosecution and criminal matters. And you can be certain that there's going to be more coming out.
With respect to your other comments, I do need to answer this. I mean, the commanders on the ground, from the beginning, asked for and received all the troops they needed, all the troops they wanted, all the troops they asked for they got them.
You're right. General Abizaid called up and said, "Look, the situation in Iraq is difficult. I'd like to keep an extra 20,000 in this crossover period and go from 115,000 to 135,000."
RUMSFELD: And we said, "Yes." And I went to the president and the president said, "Yes." And the senior military adviser, General Myers, said he thought that was correct.
And you say you don't like surprises. My Lord, who likes surprises? Nobody in the world likes surprises.
But the world's not perfect. Facts change on the ground. And when facts change on the ground, commanders tell us. And when commanders tell us, they get the troops they need.
Now, on the budget, you don't like surprises. Well, I don't, either. It happens more troops are needed and more money's needed. And it happens that it's a difficult thing for the military commanders to cash flow, taking out of one account to sustain something that came up that was not anticipated. And so the president said, "Fine."
He didn't want to ask a supplemental. General Myers and I went into him and said, "We think we need one." We think that that's not a good way to manage the Department of Defense by jerking money out of one account and sticking it in another account, trying to get reprogramming authority by the Congress. And we said, "We believe that it's the appropriate thing to do."
He didn't want to do it. He knew what he'd said but he said he'd do it. Now, that's not a surprise, it's just a fact.
To which, Pryor's obvious response should have been something like the following:
Mr. Secretary, based upon what you've just told us, we can draw five possible conclusions.
1. You were lying to us when you told us last Autumn that the $87 Billion "supplemental" would be sufficient to last an entire year.
2. You were lying to us when you repeatedly told us that you wouldn't need more troops or more money.
3. Your staff was incapable of noticing a trend which, if continued, would point up the need for further funding before the year was out.
4. Your staff was aware of the trend, but kept this information from you.
5. There wasn't a "trend", as such. A couple of weeks ago, we were right on budget, now we're suddenly out of cash. "It happens."
The fifth possibility is not only highly dubious, but probably impossible. None of the other four give us much confidence in your abilities.
This followup was so obvious, that it went un-said. Instead:
PRYOR: Mr. Chairman, thank you for your time.
Posted by Eddie Tews at May 9, 2004 03:03 PM
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