It would be "reckless to make a decision on US troop levels," he said, without knowing "whether, in fact, there's an Afghan partner ready to fill that space that the US troops would create".
For example, one may know that the law of ancient Athens included the punishment of ostracism without knowing whether it was justified, because one does not know enough about its effects, about the social context, and so forth.
That's like creating a newspaper site without knowing whether you can show articles.
Without one, we're investing $24 billion without knowing whether these four plants will ever work as promised.
Partly, this is a way of tackling health care without knowing whether or not a bill will pass.
It's possible to get almost all the way through "Defending Jacob" without knowing whether he can pull this off.
She is not surprised by the number of businesses that operate without knowing whether they are violating zoning rules.
Students throughout Texas are amassing college credits without knowing whether they will lead to employment, and many face serious debt when they graduate.
But I say a bad boss is born each time someone goes into management without knowing whether he or she is truly suited to the role.
They bought the site without knowing whether they would be permitted to convert it – and even if they could, their budget was perilously tight.
They use computers to generate millions of possible number combinations and then send messages to those addresses without knowing whether they have dialed a working number.
