Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, angrily condemned the “escalation” of the war. “To ask our young men and women to sacrifice their lives to be put in the middle of a civil war is … morally wrong. It’s tactically, strategically, militarily wrong.”
“I don’t see it, and the president doesn’t see it, as an escalation,” Rice replied.
Hagel looked stunned. “Putting 22,000 new troops, more troops in, is not an escalation?”
“Escalation is not just a matter of how many numbers you put in,” Rice ventured.
“Would you call it a decrease?” Hagel pressed.
“I would call it, Senator, an augmentation.”
Rice, a Uniter of the Divided (Dana Milbank in the Washington Post)
Update: Here is video.
I’d like to augment Condi with a rusty length of rebar.