Chuckle?

This is a quote of our Army commander in Iraq, declining to speculate on a projected departure date of US forces:

"Actually, the things we've sat around and talked about before have been wrong on every count," he said with a chuckle. "So that's probably another reason why I don't want to" discuss it. Although he did not mention it, U.S. officials had assumed when Baghdad fell to U.S. forces last April that tens of thousands of troops could be withdrawn within a few months.

President Bush declared on May 1 that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, but within weeks the number of American troops killed began rising, from 29 killed in June to 46 in July; the highest monthly total since May was 82 in November. The number of wounded also has been rising.