Theatre of the Absurd

Q Right. What is the evidence that the insurgency is in its last throes?

McCLELLAN: I think I just explained to you the desperation of terrorists and their tactics.

Q What's the evidence on the ground that it's being extinguished?

McCLELLAN: Terry, we're making great progress to defeat the terrorist and regime elements. You're seeing Iraqis now playing more of a role in addressing the security threats that they face. They're working side by side with our coalition forces. They're working on their own. There are a lot of special forces in Iraq that are taking the battle to the enemy in Iraq. And so this is a period when they are in a desperate mode.

Q Well, I'm just wondering what the metric is for measuring the defeat of the insurgency.

McCLELLAN: Well, you can go back and look at the Vice President's remarks. I think he talked about it.

Q Yes. Is there any idea how long a 'last throe' lasts for?

McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve….

From "Terry Moran vs. Scott McClellan on 'Last Throes' of Insurgency in Iraq", Editor & Publisher, 16 June 2005. They introduced their longer excerpt from the press-briefing transcript this way:

After McClellan outlined the president's plans, leading up to a key June 28th speech, ABC correspondent Terry Moran asked a pointed question, which referred back to an assessment recently made by Vice President Dick Cheney [that the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes"].

Posted on June 17, 2005 at 16.06 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Common-Place Book

2 Responses

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  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Monday, 20 June 2005 at 01.30
    Permalink

    What we have here is a failure to communicate on the White House spokesman's part. What we have on Cheney's part, of course, is a failure to know what the hell he's talking about.

  2. Written by jns
    on Monday, 20 June 2005 at 13.15
    Permalink

    On McClellan's part, certainly a failure to communicate — willfully.

    As for Cheney, don't you get the idea that he's very clear on what it is that he's not talking about?

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