Rumsfeld Sure Fooled Me

     As a side note, is there anyone who hits his lectern more often than Secretary Rumsfeld? Can't he talk with just his mouth?

     Anyway, to make Secretary of Defense happy, the press conference ended on a pro-war note.  A war-supporter (one can only suppose) asks (my transcription, 31:55 into C-SPAN video of event)

Reporter:
Mr Secretary, in an interview with the Associated Press
Iraq's Foreign Minister expressed concern that the US may pull out
before the iraqi forces are ready
I imagine you probably haven't read that interview yet
What sort of assurances can you give to iraqi people, to the american people what the bar is, for when
How, how do you know how ready the iraqi forces will be?
What are you looking for when you come up with these sorts of assessments?

Sec Rumsfeld:
It's interesting one day someone says that uh, the, uh,
They might stay longer than they're needed
And the other is they might leave before, while they're still needed
And i suppose it's an imperfect world

     I wonder if having Mr Rumsfeld respond to comments of the US puppet Iraqi Foreign Minister really amounts to a conversation, or, in Rusmfeld's words "the other" (someone).

     By the way, in a follow-up question, the answer turns out to be "The president said we'd stay as long as we're needed and that, that is as long as they're not capable of handling their own security needs."  At first that just sounded dumb, since they will have security issues as long as we are there, for twenty years, even.  Then it sounded imperial, since it had nothing to do with what the Iraqi government decides.