ok, I don't really heart him. He has cause the death of over a hundred thousand people (registration req.) by leading us into a pointless and poorly planned war.
But, you know, if someone is going to lead you into a pointless and poorly planned war, it should be Rummy, and I'm really glad he's on the team for the next term. We all know his success as a poet some of us even know his work as a lyricist. But really, his true art is dodging a question. Other people might have found this situation embarrassing. His own troops are asking why they don't have the material they need to run the occupation. Rummy's response "you go to war with the army you have."
It seems so commonsensical. Of course things aren't going to be perfect. There are always unknown unknowns. You take what you can get.
Notice, though, that his answer assumes we had to go to war, that there was nothing he could do about the timing of the war, and hence our preparation for it.
This is the kind of clever rhetorical move that gets written up over at the nonsequitur a lovely site aimed at first year logic students by my friend and fellow logic teacher Colin Anderson, which uses the tools of basic logic to take down some of the idiocies and slick tricks we see in the media.
Next semester I'm going to make my logic students symbolize Rumsfelds "The Knowns"
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