What the hell kind of triple speak is this coming out of Rummy?

What IS this, the teeter totter plan?

Casey: U.S. forces in Iraq to shrink

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060622/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/rumsfeld_4;_ylt=ArxggbiVEm5PBMx.nIk9tutX6GMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
W
ASHINGTON - The top U.S. commander in Iraq predicted on Thursday that the size of the U.S. fighting force will shrink this year, although he said he had not made new recommendations to his Pentagon bosses on the size and timing of any cuts.

"I'm confident that we'll be able to continue to take reductions over the course of this year," Army Gen. George Casey told a Pentagon news conference with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at his side.

Rumsfeld said Casey had not yet had sufficient time to consult with the new Iraqi government, but that in any case the size of the U.S. force is likely to rise and fall in coming months, depending on political and security conditions.

"It will very likely not be a steady path down," Rumsfeld said. "It could very likely be a drawdown with an increase." Noting that there now are 126,900 U.S. troops in Iraq, he said: "It could very well go back up at some point. It very likely will go down and up and down and up depending on the circumstances and depending on the need."

They are on the same path as "peace with honor". It will end up the same, a chaotic escape from the rooftop.

it could go down but then if we need it to go up it can go up...blather... blather" that really got me.

Redstone

illusions of grandeur. He put it to Tenet... he put it to the American public, he just doesn't give a sh*t, the only thing that matters is his distorted view of reality.

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/quotethis/a/rumsfeldquotes.htm

I'm betting: troop level will get a gradual reduction over the summer and then going into election season. The actual size of the reduction is irrelevant; it could be 3000 soldiers or 3 soldier-- as long as it gives the WH the ability to say, "conditions in Iraq are improving to the point where the Iraqi govmt. can begin to soldier themselves and We Can Bring Our Boys Home-- this is proof we are winning the war on terror".

That line would give the Republicans a substantial boost needed to increase the odds this Nov. during the mid-terms. And we ll know, they'll fish at the bottom of the barrel for anything that changes the odds in their favor, regardless of how small an increase.

The GOP is slick enough to see that public opinion won't stand for the current situation stagnating in Iraq much longer. Also, there's absolute no reason to think they won't continue politicizing the war to their advantages as they have been since "Mission Accomplished" was announced in a booming voice and with a big crotch.

If things get worse militarily this summer and the Pentagon demands an increase in troop levels, the occupation will become that much more 'watchable and dramatic' if the WH spins it effectively. "Show us a high body count of brown people on Fox news at six and ten o'clock with a witty crawler scrolling across the bottom and we'll tolerate the fix or six marines that get blown up everyday..."

I actually had a point when I started typing, but it got lost somewhere along the way... I hate it when tat happens.

:crazy: