Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno is silly.

In a Senate hearing on July 19, 2007 Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, a deputy to Gen. David Petraeus said, "In order to do a good assessment I need at least until November." Then, on July 20, 2007 Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno issued a statement saying, "There is no intention to push our reporting requirement beyond September. Nothing I said yesterday should be interpreted to suggest otherwise. My reference to November was simply suggesting that as we go forward beyond September, we will gain more understanding of trends."

Let's compare these two quotes, sentence by sentence, shall we?

07/19/07: "In order to do a good assessment I need at least until November"

This means that "in order to do a good assessment" he needs "at least until November."

07/20/07: "There is no intention to push our reporting requirement beyond September"

This means, then, that there is no intention of giving a good assessment, as to give a good assessment one would need to wait until November.

07/20/07: "Nothing I said yesterday should be interpreted to suggest otherwise."

Ok...but in what understanding of reasoning would the statement, "In order to do a good assessment I need at least until November" not suggest that reporting would not occur until November?

07/20/07: "My reference to November was simply suggesting that as we go forward beyond September, we will gain more understanding of trends."

This is a factual statement about the nature of reality which operates within the confines of linear time. As the amount of time of observation increases the data the observer has increases. I don't know why Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno felt that he needed to "suggest" this, though.

So, these are the words of Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, one of our boys on the ground in Iraq. With leadership like this I feel confident in our success.