Confusion

From the Telegraph:

Sen McCain, who has led criticism in Washington over the President's most controversial element said that senior administration officials had only contradicted each other when trying to explain how the timeline for the beginning of a US troop withdrawal would work in practice.

"Since the President made his speech we have not had further clarification, in fact we have had further contradiction," he said.
"On the one hand we see the Secretary of Defence and the Secretary of State say it's just a flexible date, then the president's spokesperson says it's chiselled in stone and he has the chisel. There's a real contradiction there."

The muddled messages, after three months of deliberations and nine top level White House meetings, has left many in Washington's foreign policy community aghast.

Emphasis added