Rumsfeld quotes email

You're referring to the infamous "Rumsfeld quotes" email!

In 2002, Donald Rumsfeld, then the US Secretary of Defense, sent an email to his staff with a series of quotes about the nature of war and the challenges of fighting terrorism. The email was later leaked to the press and became a subject of controversy.

Here are some of the quotes from the email:

1. "As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know."
2. "But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know. And that is where the real challenge lies."
3. "It's not that we don't know what we're doing. It's that we don't know what we're doing."
4. "We have to be careful not to get caught up in the notion that we can anticipate all the unknown unknowns."
5. "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

The email was intended to spark a discussion among Rumsfeld's staff about the complexities of fighting a war against terrorism, but it was widely criticized for being overly simplistic and even condescending. Many saw it as a reflection of the Bush administration's lack of understanding of the situation in Iraq and the Middle East.

The email has since become a symbol of the administration's perceived arrogance and lack of transparency, and it has been widely parodied and mocked in popular culture.