Tactical errors, figuratively speaking

LIVERPOOL, England, March 31 — In response to a question at one point, Ms. Rice acknowledged that the Bush administration had made "tactical errors, a thousand of them, I am sure" in Iraq and perhaps elsewhere. [She] asserted that whatever tactical failures there may have been, the strategic decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power had been right. "Saddam Hussein was not going anywhere without a military intervention," she said. (NYT, April 1, 2006, 'Rice, in England, Concedes U.S. 'Tactical Errors' in Iraq')

On WDAY radio in Fargo, N.D., on Tuesday an interviewer asked Mr. Rumsfeld about Ms. Rice's statement in Liverpool ... Mr. Rumsfeld said, "I don't know what she was talking about, to be perfectly honest," according to a Defense Department transcript of the interview. He implied that the criticism stemmed from "a lack of understanding of what warfare is all about." At a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday he said, "I talked to Condi about that, and she pointed out the transcript where she said she was speaking figuratively, not literally." (NYT, April 7, 2006, 'Facing Tough Questions, Bush Defends War')