Donald Rumsfeld’s ability to speak without saying anything never ceases to amaze, amuse, and horrify me all at once. Some examples:
- “What we are doing is that which is doable in the way we’re currently doing it.” (2001)
– “In Afghanistan, people who are friendly [to the United States] and unfriendly are constantly meeting together. Indeed, sometimes the same people can be friendly and later unfriendly within a relatively short period of time. There are also people who can pretend they’re friendly and who, in fact, are not very friendly.” (2002)
– “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don’t know we don’t know.” (2002)
– “I believe what I said yesterday. I don’t know what I said, but I know what I think, and I assume it’s what I said.” (2002)
– “If something is going to happen, there has to be something for it to happen with that’s interested in having it happen.” (2002)
– “The plan [in Iraq] is to prevent a civil war, and, to the extent one were to occur, to have the, from a security standpoint, have the Iraqi security forces deal with it to the extent they’re able to.” (2006)
– “The United States isn’t going to do anything that it’s not capable of doing. And if we do something, we’ll be capable of doing it.” (2002)
– “I’m not into this detail stuff. I’m more concept-y.” (2002)
– “Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.” (2004)
– “Stuff happens!” (2003)
.
And… 2 Things Rumsfeld Said We Know For Sure About Osama Bin Laden:
- “We do know of certain knowledge that he is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead.” (2001)
– “He is either alive and well or alive and not too well or not alive.” (2002)