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What Bremer Got Wrong in Iraq
Washington Post ^ | May 16 2007 | Nir Rosen

Posted on 05/15/2007 5:24:50 PM PDT by ASC2006

Despite Bremer's assertions, Saddam Hussein's regime was not a Sunni regime; it was a dictatorship with many complex alliances in Iraqi society, including some with Shiites. If anything, the old tyranny was a Tikriti regime, led by relatives and clansmen from Hussein's hometown.

In Bremer's mind, the way to occupy Iraq was not to view it as a nation but as a group of minorities. So he pitted the minority that was not benefiting from the system against the minority that was, and then expected them both to be grateful to him. Bremer ruled Iraq as if it were already undergoing a civil war, helping the Shiites by punishing the Sunnis. He did not see his job as managing the country; he saw it as managing a civil war. So I accuse him of causing one.

Bremer claims that Iraqis hated their army at the time of the U.S. invasion. In fact, the army was the most nationalist institution in the country, one that predated the Baath Party. In electing not to fight U.S. forces, the army was expecting to be recognized by the occupation -- and indeed, until Bremer arrived, it appeared that many soldiers and officers were hoping to cooperate with the Americans.

Bremer is wrong to say that Shiites hated the Iraqi army. He treats Iraqis as if they were Hutus and Tutsis, claiming that "Shiite conscripts were regularly brutalized and abused by their Sunni officers." This is just not true. To be sure, Sunnis were overrepresented in the officer corps, and Shiites sometimes felt as if they faced a glass ceiling. But just as there were Shiite ministers under Hussein, there were also Shiite generals. At least a third of the famous deck of cards of Iraqi leaders most wanted by the Americans were Shiites.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


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1 posted on 05/15/2007 5:24:51 PM PDT by ASC2006
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To: ASC2006

NRO - April 2004:

Rumsfeld’s War, Powell’s Occupation (April, 2004 NRO article)
National Review Online ^ | April 30, 2004 | Barbara Lerner
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1616782/posts

Rumsfeld wanted Iraqis in on the action ­ right from the beginning.

The latest post-hoc conventional wisdom on Iraq is that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld won the war but lost the occupation. There are two problems with this analysis (which comes, most forcefully, from The Weekly Standard). First, it’s not Rumsfeld’s occupation; it’s Colin Powell’s and George Tenet’s. Second, although it’s painfully obvious that much is wrong with this occupation, it’s simple-minded to assume that more troops will fix it. More troops may be needed now, but more of the same will not do the job. Something different is needed ­ and was, right from the start.

A Rumsfeld occupation would have been different, and still might be. Rumsfeld wanted to put an Iraqi face on everything at the outset ­ not just on the occupation of Iraq, but on its liberation too. That would have made a world of difference.

Rumsfeld’s plan was to train and equip ­ and then transport to Iraq ­ some 10,000 Shia and Sunni freedom fighters led by Shia exile leader Ahmed Chalabi and his cohorts in the INC, the multi-ethnic anti-Saddam coalition he created. There, they would have joined with thousands of experienced Kurdish freedom fighters, ably led, politically and militarily, by Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani. Working with our special forces, this trio would have sprung into action at the start of the war, striking from the north, helping to drive Baathist thugs from power, and joining Coalition forces in the liberation of Baghdad. That would have put a proud, victorious, multi-ethnic Iraqi face on the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and it would have given enormous prestige to three stubbornly independent and unashamedly pro-American Iraqi freedom fighters: Chalabi, Talabani, and Barzani.

Jay Garner, the retired American general Rumsfeld chose to head the civilian administration of the new Iraq, planned to capitalize on that prestige immediately by appointing all three, along with six others, to head up Iraq’s new transitional government. He planned to cede power to them in a matter of weeks ­ not months or years ­ and was confident that they would work with him, not against him, because two of them already had. General Garner, after all, is the man who headed the successful humanitarian rescue mission that saved the Kurds in the disastrous aftermath of Gulf War I, after the State Department-CIA crowd and like thinkers in the first Bush administration betrayed them. Kurds are not a small minority ­ and they remember. The hero’s welcome they gave General Garner when he returned to Iraq last April made that crystal clear.

Finally, Secretary Rumsfeld wanted to cut way down on the infiltration of Syrian and Iranian agents and their foreign terrorist recruits, not just by trying to catch them at the border ­ a losing game, given the length of those borders ­ but by pursuing them across the border into Syria to strike hard at both the terrorists and their Syrian sponsors, a move that would have forced Iran as well as Syria to reconsider the price of trying to sabotage the reconstruction of Iraq.

None of this happened, however, because State and CIA fought against Rumsfeld’s plans every step of the way. Instead of bringing a liberating Shia and Sunni force of 10,000 to Iraq, the Pentagon was only allowed to fly in a few hundred INC men. General Garner was unceremoniously dumped after only three weeks on the job, and permission for our military to pursue infiltrators across the border into Syria was denied.

General Garner was replaced by L. Paul Bremer, a State Department man who kept most of the power in his own hands and diluted what little power Chalabi, Talabani, and Barzani had by appointing not six but 22 other Iraqis to share power with them. This resulted in a rapidly rotating 25-man queen-for-a-day-type leadership that turned the Iraqi Governing Council into a faceless mass, leaving Bremer’s face as the only one most Iraqis saw.

By including fence-sitters and hostile elements as well as American friends in his big, unwieldy IGC and giving them all equal weight, Bremer hoped to display a kind of inclusive, above-it-all neutrality that would win over hostile segments of Iraqi society and convince them that a fully representative Iraqi democracy would emerge. But Iraqis didn’t see it that way. Many saw a foreign occupation of potentially endless length, led by the sort of Americans who can’t be trusted to back up their friends or punish their enemies. Iraqis saw, too, that Syria and Iran had no and were busily entrenching their agents and terrorist recruits into Iraqi society to organize, fund, and equip Sunni bitter-enders like those now terrorizing Fallujah and Shiite thugs like Moqtada al Sadr, the man who is holding hostage the holy city of Najaf.

Despite all the crippling disadvantages it labored under, Bremer’s IGC managed to do some genuine good by writing a worthy constitution, but the inability of this group to govern-period, let alone in time for the promised June 30 handover ­ finally became so clear that Bremer and his backers at State and the CIA were forced to recognize it. Their last minute “solution” is to dump the Governing Council altogether, and give U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, the power to appoint a new interim government. The hope is that U.N. sponsorship will do two big things: 1) give the Brahimi government greater legitimacy in the eyes of the Iraqi people; and 2) convince former allies to join us and reinforce our troops in Iraq in some significant way. These are vain hopes.

Putting a U.N. stamp on an Iraqi government will delegitimize it in the eyes of most Iraqis and do great damage to those who are actively striving to create a freer, more progressive Middle East. Iraqis may distrust us, but they have good reason to despise the U.N., and they do. For 30 years, the U.N. ignored their torments and embraced their tormentor, focusing obsessively on a handful of Palestinians instead. Then, when Saddam’s misrule reduced them to begging for food and medicine, they saw U.N. fat cats rip off the Oil-for-Food Program money that was supposed to save them.

The U.N. as a whole is bad; Lakhdar Brahimi is worse. A long-time Algerian and Arab League diplomat, he is the very embodiment of all the destructive old policies foisted on the U.N. by unreformed Arab tyrants, and he lost no time in making that plain. In his first press conferences, he emphasized three points: Chalabi, Talabani, and Barzani will have no place in a government he appoints; he will condemn American military action to restore order in Iraq; and he will be an energetic promoter of the old Arab excuses ­ Israel’s “poison in the region,” he announced, is the reason it’s so hard to create a viable Iraqi interim government.

Men like Chalabi, Talabani, and Barzani have nothing but contempt for Mr. Brahimi, the U.N., and old Europe. They know perfectly well who their real enemies are, and they understand that only decisive military action against them can create the kind of order that is a necessary precondition for freedom and democracy. They see, as our State Department Arabists do not, that we will never be loved, in Iraq or anywhere else in the Middle East, until we are respected, and that the month we have wasted negotiating with the butchers of Fallujah has earned us only contempt, frightening our friends and encouraging our mortal enemies.

The damage Brahimi will do to the hope of a new day in Iraq and in the Middle East is so profound that it would not be worth it even if empowering him would bring in a division of French troops to reinforce ours in Iraq. In fact, it will do no such thing. Behind all the bluster and moral preening, the plain truth is that the French have starved their military to feed their bloated, top-heavy welfare state for decades. They couldn’t send a division like the one the Brits sent, even if they wanted to (they don’t). Belgium doesn’t want to help us either, nor Spain, nor Russia, because these countries are not interested in fighting to create a new Middle East. They’re fighting to make the most advantageous deals they can with the old Middle East, seeking to gain advantages at our expense, and at the expense of the oppressed in Iraq, Iran, and every other Middle Eastern country where people are struggling to throw off the shackles of Islamofascist oppression.

It is not yet too late for us to recognize these facts and act on them by dismissing Brahimi, putting Secretary Rumsfeld and our Iraqi friends fully in charge at last, and unleashing our Marines to make an example of Fallujah. And when al Jazeera screams “massacre,” instead of cringing and apologizing, we need to stand tall and proud and tell the world: Lynch mobs like the one that slaughtered four Americans will not be tolerated. Order will restored, and Iraqis who side with us will be protected and rewarded.

­ Barbara Lerner is a frequent contributor to NRO.

7 posted on 11/02/2006 9:10:53 AM EST by Matchett-PI (To have no voice in the Party that always sides with America’s enemies is a badge of honor.)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1730632/posts?page=7#7

Rumsfeld’s Prophecy Has Come True
By Cal Thomas October 26, 2006
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/10/rumsfelds_prophecy_has_come_tr.html

bttt


2 posted on 05/15/2007 5:28:35 PM PDT by Matchett-PI ("But there IS honor among the Racist Left thieves: it is called "political correctness.")
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To: ASC2006
What Bremer Got Wrong in Iraq

A better title would be...What We Did Wrong by Sending Bremer to Iraq...

3 posted on 05/15/2007 5:29:23 PM PDT by Cornpone (Islam: The world's greatest, preventable and treatable psychosis. ©2006Cornpone)
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To: Cornpone

I still can’t believe Bush gave that moron and Tenet the Presidental Medel of Freedom.


4 posted on 05/15/2007 5:34:31 PM PDT by ASC2006
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To: Matchett-PI
snipped from: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/09/0080197 At first, Plan B seemed to be right on track. Bremer persuaded the Iraqi Governing Council to agree to everything: the new timetable, the interim government, and the interim constitution. He even managed to slip into the constitution a completely overlooked clause, Article 26. It stated that for the duration of the interim government, “The laws, regulations, orders and directives issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority . . . shall remain in force” and could only be changed after general elections are held. Bremer had found his legal loophole: There would be a window—seven months—when the occupation was officially over but before general elections were scheduled to take place. Within this window, the Hague and Geneva Conventions' bans on privatization would no longer apply, but Bremer's own laws, thanks to Article 26, would stand. During these seven months, foreign investors could come to Iraq and sign forty-year contracts to buy up Iraqi assets. If a future elected Iraqi government decided to change the rules, investors could sue for compensation. But Bremer had a formidable opponent: Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, the most senior Shia cleric in Iraq. al Sistani tried to block Bremer's plan at every turn, calling for immediate direct elections and for the constitution to be written after those elections, not before. Both demands, if met, would have closed Bremer's privatization window. Then, on March 2, with the Shia members of the Governing Council refusing to sign the interim constitution, five bombs exploded in front of mosques in Karbala and Baghdad, killing close to 200 worshipers. General John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, warned that the country was on the verge of civil war. Frightened by this prospect, al Sistani backed down and the Shia politicians signed the interim constitution. It was a familiar story: the shock of a violent attack paved the way for more shock therapy. When I arrived in Iraq a week later, the economic project seemed to be back on track. All that remained for Bremer was to get his interim constitution ratified by a Security Council resolution, then the nervous lawyers and insurance brokers could relax and the sell-off of Iraq could finally begin. The CPA, meanwhile, had launched a major new P.R. offensive designed to reassure investors that Iraq was still a safe and exciting place to do business. The centerpiece of the campaign was Destination Baghdad Exposition, a massive trade show for potential investors to be held in early April at the Baghdad International Fairgrounds. It was the first such event inside Iraq, and the organizers had branded the trade fair “DBX,” as if it were some sort of Mountain Dew‒sponsored dirt-bike race. In keeping with the extreme-sports theme, Thomas Foley traveled to Washington to tell a gathering of executives that the risks in Iraq are akin “to skydiving or riding a motorcycle, which are, to many, very acceptable risks.”
5 posted on 05/15/2007 5:38:33 PM PDT by Vn_survivor_67-68
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To: DevSix; Rummyfan

You will like this post.


6 posted on 05/15/2007 5:44:12 PM PDT by Chgogal (Vote Al Qaeda. Vote Democrat.)
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To: ASC2006
Ditto here! After seeing Tenet’s interview, my conclusion, the guy is a doofus.
7 posted on 05/15/2007 5:46:32 PM PDT by Chgogal (Vote Al Qaeda. Vote Democrat.)
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To: Vn_survivor_67-68
He even managed to slip into the constitution a completely overlooked clause, Article 26.

I don't know what General Douglas MacArthur may have slipped into the Japanese articles of surrender or anything else. I do know this. My father was there in 1946 and he shot looters on site, on orders. That's what MacArthur ordered him to do. No shennagins. The message was clear.

8 posted on 05/15/2007 5:48:58 PM PDT by Cornpone (Islam: The world's greatest, preventable and treatable psychosis. ©2006Cornpone)
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To: Vn_survivor_67-68

Bremer is a weasel - just like Powell, Tenent, and the rest of them.


9 posted on 05/15/2007 5:49:16 PM PDT by Matchett-PI ("But there IS honor among the Racist Left thieves: it is called "political correctness.")
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To: Matchett-PI

Wow. Thanks. I never saw that article at the time, but at the time, and since, I was hoping somebody would write something like it!


10 posted on 05/15/2007 5:50:21 PM PDT by Stultis (I don't worry about the war turning into "Vietnam" in Iraq; I worry about it doing so in Congress.)
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

To: ASC2006
He did not see his job as managing the country; he saw it as managing a civil war. So I accuse him of causing one.

I dunno, Nir. Many problems as I have with Bremer, and State, and the CIA, I think I'm gonna continue blaming the M_____ F_____s blowing up the mosques and marketplaces.

12 posted on 05/15/2007 5:53:50 PM PDT by Stultis (I don't worry about the war turning into "Vietnam" in Iraq; I worry about it doing so in Congress.)
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To: Matchett-PI

Do you have evidence for the assertion about Bremer? I honestly am interested in better understanding the man and what he did.


13 posted on 05/15/2007 5:55:06 PM PDT by Theo (Global warming "scientists." Pro-evolution "scientists." They're both wrong.)
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To: Stultis
I dunno, Nir. Many problems as I have with Bremer, and State, and the CIA, I think I'm gonna continue blaming the M_____ F_____s blowing up the mosques and marketplaces.

Good point and most shouldn't forget this - (regardless of how inept Bremer and State were)

14 posted on 05/15/2007 5:56:45 PM PDT by SevenMinusOne
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To: ASC2006; Matchett-PI

Thanaks for posting this.

I have long maintained that majority of whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq were due to arrogance and ineptness of Paul Bremer’s (State Dept) management of period of occupation there, before transfer of power, and his micromanagement and overriding of some military decisions.


15 posted on 05/15/2007 6:05:10 PM PDT by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
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To: ASC2006
Yikes...hard to write this but George W. Bush has really disappointed me....
16 posted on 05/15/2007 6:15:01 PM PDT by pointsal (q)
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To: ASC2006; tg75
All very interesting. Much addressed in the past but surely should be keeped in the for front lest everyone forget who and how things came to past.
I'm pinging a new Freeper who has taken a keen interest in getting facts seldomed found elsewhere.
State and the CIA where so fobar in this deal it is pathetic.
The invasion would have been done and settled within six months or less.
Jay got a real screw job that is for sure. He was the right man at the right time. I continue to degrade my opinions of Bremmer and crew as the dots get better connected.
And Rummy's plan most probably would have worked with few hitches.
Al Qaeda simply may not have had enough time to form the Iraqi branch. Iraq would be much further along at this point, and our troops other then those that would be welcomed to stay to rebuild their military would now be home cranking down cold ones.
17 posted on 05/15/2007 6:20:54 PM PDT by Marine_Uncle
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To: Matchett-PI

I hate the CIA. Bunch of incompetents.


18 posted on 05/15/2007 6:50:48 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys--Reagan and Bush)
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To: yldstrk

I’ll amend that to “I am disgusted” with the CIA.


19 posted on 05/15/2007 7:08:13 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys--Reagan and Bush)
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To: Yehuda

“imho, we should have treated Iraq and Afghanistan the way our parents did germany and japan.

Full and total occupation, NO DISCUSSION OF SELF-GOVT UNTIL DE-JIHADIFICATION.”

Exactly. The enemy has never been humiliated during this War on Terror. The enemy needs to be humilated first, then defeat shortly follows.


20 posted on 05/15/2007 7:20:28 PM PDT by Imperialist
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