{"id":8111,"date":"2006-08-03T13:23:43","date_gmt":"2006-08-03T17:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8111.html"},"modified":"2006-08-03T13:23:43","modified_gmt":"2006-08-03T17:23:43","slug":"i-have-never-painted-a-rosy-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/i-have-never-painted-a-rosy-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Have Never Painted A Rosy Picture’"},"content":{"rendered":"

After initially balking at the invitation, Defense Secretary [tag]Donald Rumsfeld[\/tag] reversed course<\/a> and agreed to speak to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee today. Given his position, he might as well have stuck to his original plans.<\/p>\n

Sen. [tag]Hillary Clinton[\/tag] asked Rumsfeld a series of aggressive questions, in particular noting his track record of “assurances that have, frankly, proven to be unfulfilled.”<\/p>\n

Rumsfeld, naturally, disagreed. “I don’t think that’s true. I have never painted a [tag]rosy picture[\/tag],” the Defense Secretary said with a straight face. “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.”<\/p>\n

ThinkProgress found ample evidence<\/a> to the contrary (no word from TP about whether their efforts represented a “dickens of a time”).<\/p>\n

Dec. 18, 2002<\/a>: KING: What’s the current situation in Afghanistan? RUMSFELD: It is encouraging. They have elected a government through the Loya Jirga process. The Taliban are gone. The al Qaeda are gone.<\/b><\/p>\n

Feb. 7, 2003<\/a>: “It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.<\/b>”<\/p>\n

Feb. 20 2003<\/a>: “‘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<\/b>,’ Rumsfeld replied, referring to American forces.”<\/p>\n

Mar. 30, 2003<\/a>: “It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are<\/b>. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Measured” in his words? I don’t think so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After initially balking at the invitation, Defense Secretary [tag]Donald Rumsfeld[\/tag] reversed course and agreed to speak to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee today. Given his position, he might as well have stuck to his original plans. Sen. [tag]Hillary Clinton[\/tag] asked Rumsfeld a series of aggressive questions, in particular noting his track record of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}