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Feisty Rumsfeld Talks Benchmarks

October 26, 2006 6:51 PM

A feisty Donald Rumsfeld came to the Pentagon Briefing Room today to face the barrage of questions on benchmarks, timetables, etc.   From how tortuous the definition of "benchmarks," "projections" and "milestones" has become it's become very apparent that administration officials want to avoid any use of the word "timetable" to describe their efforts.   There's no daylight according to Rumsfeld on any of the varying interpretations that have emerged from Iraq and the administration the last few days.

Rumsfeld took the press to task for the focus on potential penalties if target dates aren't met.   of press reports and "mythology" he's seen. "-Now, you're looking for some sort of a guillotine to come falling down if some date isn't met.  That is not what this is about. This is complicated stuff." 

BENCHMARKS IN A NUTSHELL
QUESTION:  ... it sounds like you're uncertain that they have agreed to lay down benchmarks.
RUMSFELD:  Look, Zal's got his job, the prime minister's got his job and I've got my job.  And they'll speak for their jobs and I'll speak for my job.
And I -- I can say this.  I think that people are making an awful lot of this and confusing the issue.  And I think if you'd step back and look at it and say, "Well, isn't that the most normal, sensible rational thing to do?" -- it's like you do it in a corporation, it's like we do it in the government of the United States.  They talk to the Congress about this, work on that, try to figure it out.  There's nothing mysterious about this. And trying to say, "Well, he agreed to this then," or, "He agreed to this now" -- that isn't the way it works.  It just isn't the way it works.

WHAT'S A BENCHMARK?
--Well, you know, I mean, if you take -- go to last year or two.  There were benchmarks or projections or hopes or expectations.  The hope would be you could draft a constitution and elect a constituent assembly and that you could have an election based on that constitution. And they did it.  And 12 million people went out and voted.
Impressive.   Now, that is a benchmark.
-- But what it does is it allows people to point toward something and to, kind of, track along that line.
--And to the extent they're public, it gives people a sense of that's the direction you're going.  And that's encouraging in a democracy for people to say, "OK, they've, kind of, indicated" -- when they do; they have not done it yet, obviously, because they haven't come to understandings on it.  But when they do announce it, they'll say, "That's where we're going, out that way.  And here are, kind of, the steps we hope to take."
--So, I think there's an advantage in having it public because it's a declaration of your priorities and what you think you'd like to accomplish.  The risk of it is that someone will say, "Oh, my goodness, look, they missed it by a day or two," or a week or something else, and fuss at you.  Well, that's life.  People fuss anyway.
--QUESTION:  So you don't know if, in the end, they will lay down benchmarks?   RUMSFELD:  My impression is they already are.  And that it is a process, not an event.

"DAYLIGHT" ON BENCHMARKS/PROJECTIONS/MILESTONES/TIMETABLE?
--Now, you're looking for some sort of a guillotine to come falling down if some date isn't met.  That is not what this is about. This is complicated stuff.  It's difficult.  We're looking out into the future.  No one can predict the future with absolute certainty.     So you ought to just back off, take a look at it, relax, understand that it's complicated, it's difficult.  Honorable people are working on these things together.  There isn't any daylight between them.  They'll be discussing this and discussing that.  They may have a change there, a change here.  But it'll get worked out.
--And so this is something they're going to work through.  And I wouldn't waste a lot of newsprint trying to find daylight between everybody on this or try to find things that are wrong with it.
   
GETTING THERE WITH BENCHMARKS/PROJECTIONS/MILESTONES/STEPS
---the value of it, in my view, is that you are, in effect, establishing priorities.  You're saying, among the coalition and the Iraqi government, that the goal is to, kind of, get from where we are to there.  And "there" is having the Iraqis govern their country and provide for their own country.    And the way to get there is in steps.   
-- I think the idea of saying, "We're here, we want to get there, here are some steps to get there, let's go ahead and tell the world that we think those are the steps we want to get there, we've kind of agreed on them, and then see if we can't do it."    And then, of course, you can point with alarm and say, "Oh, my goodness, you didn't make it."  And you can have a front-page article and everyone will have a good time, and we'll say, "That's right, you didn't make it."  And then the ones that we make earlier than we
thought, we'll never see it on the front page. 

NEWS COVERAGE/MYTHOLOGY
(Starts off by saying he hasn't seen Maliki's new remarks that Iraqi forces are under-equipped then) -- "I  find almost every day I see all kinds of mythology repeated in the press day after day of things that never happened. Just unbelievable what I see. "
--Casey and more troops -- So first we have him implying, the way the press carries it, that there are going to be more troops.  And then you have me explaining, yes, we're already studying which new troops we'll put in.  Come on.  I didn't just fall off a turnip truck.
      
TIS THE POLITICAL SEASON
Asked about daylight on timelines/benchmarks/projections/milestones --  Well, it's a political season.  And everyone's trying to make a little mischief out of this, and make -- turn it into a political football, and see if we can't get it on the front page of every newspaper and find a little daylight between what the Iraqis say or someone in the United States says or somebody else in the United States says.  As they do that, they then discuss, "Well, when might something happen?"  And it isn't a date.  And it isn't a penalty if it doesn't. I mean, you're trying to add a degree of formality and finality and punishment to something.
--Asked about Casey leaving door open for possibly more troops --  Listen, we're in the political season.  You know that. And that's what's happening.  People are trying to take what he said and turn it in a way that it plays the way they'd like to see it play.   He did not leave anyone with the impression that he was thinking about more troops or fewer troops or the same number of troops.  He just gave a truthful answer.  QUESTION:  When he was asked… RUMSFELD:  They asked him the second question, could it stay the same?  Maybe.  Could it go down?  Maybe. He would have answered the same way for every one of them. They're where he wants them.  Think of that.  Now, that is mischievous.  I don't mean by you, but the environment we're in...
QUESTION:  By General Casey?  I mean, he's the one… RUMSFELD:  No, not by Casey.  (LAUGHTER)  The concept is mischievous.  But I mean, that's what happens. We're all adults.  We know what's going on here.

RUMSFELD DOESN'T SPEAK FOR OTHER COUNTRIES
QUESTION:  But you're not sure if the Iraqi government has agreed to this sort of process you laid out of setting quarterly targets more or less.
RUMSFELD:  I have made a practice of not speaking for foreign governments for six years, and I'm not going to start now.  They will announce what they've agreed to.   
--And they have groups that meet and talk together on, "How are we going to do this?" and, "When should the parliament do this, that or the other things?"      This is a sovereign country that you're dealing with.  And when you say, "Have they agreed to it?" I don't know what it is.  Are they involved in the process?  You bet they are.

October 26, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (5)

User Comments

Posted by: Bender | Oct 26, 2006 10:34:26 PM

Posted by: Warren | Oct 27, 2006 12:26:08 PM

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Posted by: Dirik Lolkus | Oct 27, 2006 3:16:21 PM

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