Q: General Myers, could I go back to this issue of "exhausted" and "extended" that Brett made -- asked? Isn't it true, though, that the U.S. is almost exhausted and overextended in the use of precision weapons over there? I mean, you've dropped like 5,000 of these satellite-guided bombs and the inventory is depleted. In that respect, isn't the --Myers: That's not correct, Tony. The inventory is not depleted.
[snip]
Myers: No, the issue is, are we going to stand up here and tell you how many JDAMs we have? No, we are not. But I just told you we are not exhausted -- what term did you use? -- depleted. We're not depleted.
And during Allied Force, there was a big listing of our munitions, some of our precision munitions, and it was Mary Jo who turned to me, my wife, and said, "Why are we telling the world what our -- the status of our munitions? Shouldn't that be classified information?" And it should have been, and for some reason we felt obligated to spit it out there. In this case, we are not depleted; let me just say that. It goes --
Rumsfeld: It also happens that the admiral, who was discussing this subject, was wrong. He -- maybe not wrong; he may have been speaking of something he knew something about but should not -- been speaking about, because the levels of munitions is not everybody in the world's business, to be perfectly honest, and he should have known better. But he may have been talking about what he did know about, in a narrower area, but not a worldwide area. And --
Q: The comments that the -- I think it was from Admiral Blair and General Ralston, as you said, talked about the fact that they were asked specifically, that they do not feel they have the forces and capabilities to conduct the missions that they have now, and that what that means is that, as General Ralston said, "I do not have the forces in EUCOM to carry out these missions."
But if asked to do something else, he would come back to you --
Rumsfeld: Exactly.
Q: -- and say, "I need more."
Rumsfeld: And they do all the time.
Q: And what that means is, then, there will have to be a decision made and a trade-off.
Myers: Right. We prioritize all the time. That's what we do. And --
Rumsfeld: Every day we're faced with those issues, and he's quite right. No one person is necessarily going to have every single thing they need at any given moment, unless they ask for it and then a judgment's made as to how you want to balance those risks and how -- what priorities you think are appropriate. And that's what General Myers and I do.
There is some back and forth on this issue at other places in the press conference. But it is important to note that the media brought up the names of the "top brass" and Rumsfeld and Myers answered their questions.
The entire transcript can be read here ..... and I recommend that all do so before jumping to too many conclusions.