Posted on 10/06/2004 5:29:29 AM PDT by OESY
Former viceroy L. Paul Bremer did 14 months of hard service in Iraq, so it is a special shame to see that he is now squandering that legacy by blaming others for what's gone wrong there....
Mr. Bremer revised his remarks: "I believe that we currently have sufficient troop levels in Iraq."
...Trouble is, we haven't found a single other senior official involved in the war or its aftermath -- in or out of uniform -- who attests to Mr. Bremer's version of events.
"I never heard him ask for more troops and he had many opportunities before the President to do so," one senior Administration official tells us. Or to be more precise, Mr. Bremer did finally ask for two more divisions in a June 2004 memo -- that is, two weeks prior to his departure and more than a year after he arrived.
...General John Abizaid was consulted and argued that it was better policy to train Iraqi forces to fill any void....
The truth is that the insurgency was already under way.... Although plenty of Iraqis warned of this threat, Mr. Bremer clearly underestimated it and failed to take the military and political steps that might have countered it.
On the military side, Mr. Bremer pursued a two-year plan to build an army oriented toward external defense, not internal threats....
On the political side, Mr. Bremer underestimated the extent to which putting an early end to the occupation was important. He initially resisted the creation of the Governing Council altogether, and when he allowed it to happen gave it too little power. He also delayed implementing the democracy we had said we came to bring to Iraq, and he ultimately had to be told by Washington to agree to Shiite demands for elections at an earlier date....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Another tell-all book on the way, I presume.
I think Bremer did a good job. He's entitled to his opinion, although I think the timing of his remarks is not the most helpful to Pres. Bush's reelection, and he may be eliminating himself from contention for Sec'y of State position in a second Bush administration, as was at one time being bruited about.
President Bush has ALWAYS said that he will listen to the advice of the GENERALS about the force level on the ground.
He did not say his primary concern was the head civilian's ideas on how to do battle and what force levels to maintain.
Bremer did some good things.
He isn't, however, a general.
Bremer, a Roman Catholic, should go to confession, and his penance should be to shut the hell up.
Opinions is all that matters these days, never mind the facts and integrity. Oh, and did I forget to mention style, dressing and blah-blah-blah ability?
It seems loyalty is sorely lacking, as always, in Washington. For Bremer to do this 3 weeks before the election is rank disloyalty to the President.
You just nailed it. Its all about a book. 14 months of fame and Bremer is looking for a publisher's payday.
Indeed, this has "book" written all over it.
I think Soros and Kerry paid him to come out with this right now, and dangled a primo position in a Kerry admin. before his smarmy face.
While our military was preparing, from November-March, in Qatar, I heard the State Dept. dudes were hanging out at the swimming pools in lux Qatar hotels rather than participating in planning meetings. They could have been team players, but weren't. I have nothing but contempt for Bremer, that he would comment like this now. Ungrateful sleazebag with Edwards-pretty boy disease.
And did I mention that the guy's a real creep?
BUMP
I hope everyone here has had a chance to read yesterday's posts from the August 2003 interview that Bremer gave on George Stephanapolous's show.
In it, Bremer said he had not asked for more troops and did not think we needed more troops.
Was Bremer lying then or is he lying now?
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