Friday, April 09, 2004

Rice Vs Rice

Two tiny quotes of Rice's testimony.


"And tragically, for all the language of war spoken before September 11th, this country simply was not on war footing."

40 minutes or so

“And the president of the United States had us at battle station during this period of time”
Concerns Summer 2001 which was before 9/11/01.

OK what is the difference between “on war footing” and “at battle stations” ?

[update] It is clear that she meant that the executive branch was not on a war footing because in reply to Thomson's first question she said

"Well, I think that when I made the comment that the country was not on war footing, that didn't just mean the executive branch was not on war footing."

I realise that, even when a country is actually at war, soldiers are not always at battle stations, so it is possible to be on a war footing but not at battle stations. It is not, however, possible to be at battle stations but not on a war footing.

No comments:

Post a Comment