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Bush faulted on postwar planning (task force headed by Sandy Berger & Brent Scowcroft)
Arizona Daily Star ^

Posted on 07/31/2005 10:49:32 AM PDT by Libloather

Bush faulted on postwar planning
REUTERS

WASHINGTON - An independent assessment of the tumult in Iraq led by two top former presidential advisers found that the Bush administration was unprepared for postwar Iraq and underestimated the number of troops needed in a miscalculation that helped fuel the insurgency.

The report by a Council on Foreign Relations task force, released Wednesday, concluded that the failure to prepare properly for the period after the war had given "early impetus for the insurgency" now gripping the country.

The task force was headed by two former national security advisers, Democrat Samuel "Sandy" Berger and Republican Brent Scowcroft, and presented a bipartisan critique of the Bush approach.

Scowcroft, national security adviser under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, had warned publicly of the risks of military action in Iraq in the run-up to the 2003 invasion.

"The critical miscalculation of Iraq war-planning was that the stabilization and reconstruction mission would require no more forces than the invasion itself," the panel reported.

"Prewar inattention to postwar requirements - or simply misjudgments about them - left the United States ill-equipped to address public security, governance and economic demands in the immediate aftermath of the conflict, seriously undermining key U.S. foreign policy goals and giving early impetus to the insurgency," it said.

The report said President Bush still had not made the changes in policy and government structure needed to respond to future post-conflict situations and said this should be a top foreign-policy priority.

It noted that during the 1990s, action to stabilize and rebuild states marked by conflict was often derided as "foreign policy as social work."

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, however, Bush and others redefined the problem and acknowledged that weak states, like Afghanistan, could become havens for extremists and accepted that dealing with them was equally a humanitarian and national security priority, it said. But this acceptance "has yet to be matched by a comprehensive policy or institutional capacity within the U.S. government to engage successfully in stabilization and reconstruction missions," it said.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: berger; brent; bush; cfr; faulted; force; headed; planning; postwar; sandy; sandyberger; scowcroft; task
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1 posted on 07/31/2005 10:49:36 AM PDT by Libloather
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To: Libloather

Did they pull this out of their socks or someplace else?


2 posted on 07/31/2005 10:51:52 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Freedom of speech makes it much easier to spot the idiots." [Jay Lessig, 2/7/2005])
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To: Libloather

Why isn't Berger in prison?


3 posted on 07/31/2005 10:53:54 AM PDT by BenLurkin (O beautiful for patriot dream - that sees beyond the years)
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To: Libloather

They were anti-Iraq from the beginning.


4 posted on 07/31/2005 10:54:22 AM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker!)
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To: Libloather
I thought Samuel "Panties" Berger was in jail..... oh no, sorry, I forgot, an FOB does not play by the same rules as other citizens.
5 posted on 07/31/2005 10:54:28 AM PDT by ScaniaBoy (Part of the Right Wing Research & Attack Machine)
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To: Libloather

So that's why Sandy Burglar wasn't given any prison time. He was on an anti-Bush/anti-America witchhunt. I apologize for all the bad things I said about the "judge" who orchestrated the stolen documents fiasco. Politics trumps criminal activity in this country. Burglar was on a Bush-bashing mission from the DNC. I should have know better.


6 posted on 07/31/2005 10:54:51 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (We did not lose in Vietnam. We left.)
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To: Libloather

The unmitigated gall of our government to give Sandy Burglar anything but a jury trial and a prison sentence is beyond disgusting. Is there any accountability - at all - left in our govenment? Don't answer, I know.


7 posted on 07/31/2005 10:58:06 AM PDT by Doohickey (If you choose not to decide, you will have made a choice...I will choose freewill.)
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Brent "Let's stop Desert Storm early and then abandon the Kurds" Scowcroft


8 posted on 07/31/2005 11:01:46 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
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To: Libloather

It's a frame-up,Berger hid the plans in his pants so that President Bush wouldn't be able to find them.


9 posted on 07/31/2005 11:02:26 AM PDT by mrsmel
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To: Libloather

Is this a joke?


10 posted on 07/31/2005 11:03:57 AM PDT by recoveringlurker
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To: Libloather

So is Sandy Berg(l)er pretending to be Woodward, or Bernstein?


11 posted on 07/31/2005 11:05:45 AM PDT by niteowl77
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To: Libloather

Sandy "Pantload" Berger?


12 posted on 07/31/2005 11:14:32 AM PDT by My2Cents ("The essence of American journalism is vulgarity divested of truth." -- Winston Churchill)
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To: Libloather

Oh well if sandeee and brentt say it it must be true then. After all didn't sandeee testify that he didn't know anything about those secret documents??????????????????????


13 posted on 07/31/2005 11:16:12 AM PDT by cubreporter (I trust Rush. He has done more for this country than any of us will ever know! :))
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To: Libloather

Well, guess I'll have to print the report out and send it to Sandy to use for toilet paper in jail. That's the approximate value of this report.

What??? Sandy Burglar isn't in jail????

Oh well, I think it was Orwell who told us that all men are equal, but some are more equal than others.

Burglar and Scowcroft. Will wonders never cease?


14 posted on 07/31/2005 11:21:48 AM PDT by Ole Okie
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To: Libloather; Republic; Mia T; Alamo-Girl


.

SANDY BERGER:

Personally guaranteed the American People on NBC's 'Meed the Press' that there was "No way" the Communist Chinese would get ahold of our precious Missile and Space Satellite Technology when launching our Space Satellites from their soil... which they promptly did.

Helped the CLINTONS refuse 3 Free Offers from the Sudan during the 1990's to turn OSAMA bin LADEN over to us on a slilver plater.

Helped himself to National Security papers at the National Archives, then walking out the door afterwards in prep for his and CLINTON's testimony before the 911 Investigating Commission.

The Enemy is now Within...
and always has been.

.


15 posted on 07/31/2005 11:38:58 AM PDT by ALOHA RONNIE ("ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer/Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965 http://www.lzxray.com)
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To: Libloather

Raning democrat - BIDEN

Does that answer a lot of questions.


16 posted on 07/31/2005 11:44:15 AM PDT by CyberAnt (President Bush: "America is the greatest nation on the face of the earth")
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To: A.A. Cunningham

Scowcroft is the Saudi royal family's favorite sock-puppet.


17 posted on 07/31/2005 11:45:40 AM PDT by gaspar
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To: Libloather
"An independent assessment of the tumult in Iraq led by two top former presidential advisers "

An out right lie. Both Sandy Berger and Brent Scholcraft have been vocal, almost hysteric, critics of the effort in Iraq since day one. The idea that they did an "independent assessment" is so absurd as to be laughable. Journalistic Fraud on parade.
18 posted on 07/31/2005 11:49:26 AM PDT by MNJohnnie ( Iraq is a Terrorist bug hotel, Terrorists go in, they do not come out.)
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To: NonValueAdded

Out of his a** where he pulls everything else.


19 posted on 07/31/2005 11:54:05 AM PDT by AliVeritas (Ignorance is a condition. Stupidity is a strategy.)
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To: Libloather
Mr. Berger, Mr. Scowcroft what is the Democratic Party's exit strategy for Germany, Japan and Korea?

When will you Democrats bring the troops home?

20 posted on 07/31/2005 11:56:02 AM PDT by MrBambaLaMamba (Buy 'Allah' brand urinal cakes - If you can't kill the enemy at least you can piss on their god)
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