Lawrence Rita
Lawrence Rita
defense department determine entire less scope
We're going to take a look at the entire scope of our responsibilities in the Department of Defense and determine what is it that we can or should be doing better, differently, more of, less of.
allowing enemy intelligence intelligence-and-intellectuals learning stop
We're getting more intelligence that's allowing us to stop more of these things, find more of them. So we're learning from them (the insurgents) and the enemy is learning from us, and it's going to be that way for as long as there is an insurgency.
altered assume january perfectly plausible
We altered the rotations of units during the January election. And I think it's perfectly plausible to assume we'll do the same thing for this election,
afghan coalition country forces level overall security
The overall level of Afghan and coalition security forces in the country is growing.
capability forces greater key rotation stack top troops
We'll have a lot of flexibility to be able to let the forces stack on top of one another during the rotation (of troops in and out of Iraq) so that we can have a greater capability during key points.
bin dedicated harder less resources since tough trying
We're not trying any harder or less to find bin Laden than we've been doing since 9/11. It's a tough problem, and we have a lot or resources dedicated to it.
obvious people question
There's a lot of people who know that that's an obvious question
based conditions latest political reduction series troop
As we have already said, the troop reduction will be based on conditions, and one of the important conditions is this election, which will be the latest in a series of political developments.
close continue either presence reduced self turn
As you continue to either close or turn over these bases, it's just self-evident that there would be some reduced need for the American presence in those areas,
bad determine good
That's not a good way to determine how good or bad things are going - by (counting) how many things are exploding.
careful operating perhaps procedures reviewed standard
So they've reviewed the standard operating procedures to see if perhaps we could have been more careful in those cases.
assessment include likely stand thinking
I think it's likely he (Casey) will give some kind of an assessment on where we stand post-election and what his thinking is. I can't say that it will include a recommendation. I just don't know that.
It could be more. It could be less.
defense department paying says somebody wrong
If somebody comes back to me and says there's nothing wrong with the Department of Defense paying journalists, I'll say, 'Even if there's nothing wrong, does it make sense ?