Bremer says US did not expect insurgency in Iraq

Reuters ^ | Jan 6, 2006

[jmc1969]

Paul Bremer, who led the U.S. civilian occupation authority in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, has admitted the United States did not anticipate the insurgency in the country, NBC Television said on Friday.

Bremer, interviewed by the network in connection with release of his book on Iraq, recounted the decision to disband the Iraqi army quickly after arriving in Baghdad, a move many experts consider a major miscalculation.

When asked who was to blame for the subsequent Iraqi rebellion, in which thousands of Iraqis and Americans have died, Bremer said "we really didn't see the insurgency coming," the network said in a news release.

Bremer also said he was deeply concerned about fighting insurgents and "became increasingly worried about the Pentagon's push to downsize the number of U.S. forces in Iraq by spring 2004," the network said.

Bremer said he raised his concerns about the numbers and quality of forces with President George W. Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and senior military officials.

But he told NBC "there was a tendency by people in the Pentagon to exaggerate the capability of the Iraqi forces and I felt it was not likely we would have professionally trained forces to allow us to withdraw American forces in the spring of 2004."

[Arm_Bears]

Pi$$ off, Paul.

[Maceman]

Bremer says US did not expect insurgency in Iraq

Well I guess our generals adapted to the unexpected pretty well, given that even the Sunnis are now opposing the insurgency.

[SevenMinusOne]

Bremer should cowboy up and keep his mouth shut! Especially to the MSM (he knows better).

With that said the disbanding of all the Iraqi military wasn't the best decision (in certain areas of Iraq) and was a decision being made thousands and thousands of miles away in the halls of the Pentagon and not by those who were on the ground.

Regardless Iraq has still made amazing progress and the values of freedom and self worth are on the march throughout Iraq and the ME.

[speekinout]

Pass the buck time already? OK, the buck does belong on Bush's desk, and he seems to accept it. Now, why doesn't Bremer explain why he didn't make a stronger case for his view?

[TCats]

Paul, got news for you. The Insurgency isn't the only thing you didn't see coming. But that's OK, we'll give you and your fellow myopic, George Tenet, a Medal for your piss poor performance. Loyalty trumps competence every time it seems.

[Mike Darancette]

The US knowingly built a roach motel and the roaches came. I cannot believe that Bremer is really that Naive.

[proud_yank]

I imagine that during WWII, we encountered many more 'surprises'. Lame story.

[jmc1969]

Bremer has a book coming out about his time in Iraq.

Of course Bremer has no place to talk about the Pentagon he made a number of his own big mistakes.

[Siena Dreaming]

Bremer lives in Vermont.

He's being influenced by his liberal pals up there.

[Redbob]

MAybe Bremer didn't expect insurgency; that would be because he's an idiot, completely ignorant of history.

[TheCrusader]

Don't know if Bremmer is right or wrong, but I do know he's writing a book and wants to sell lots of copies; and there's nothing better than controversy to get people interested in the book. Bremmer is a petty, selfish man.

What is frustrating though, is that the U.S. is forcing the majority Shiites government/military to treat the captured Sunni insurgents with kid gloves. This is really harming their ability to deal with these scum the only way that will work for them, with an iron fist and no mercy. The only thing people from that region understand is brutal force, and lots of it. We really should be looking the other way when the new Iraqi government captures these worms.

[Billthedrill]

I'll wait for the direct quotation, thanks. If Bremer didn't anticipate an insurgency in Iraq then he was the only one in country who didn't.

[yldstrk]

Bremer is a folking icehole.

[marron]

What he means to say is, "he" didn't see it coming.

What journalists and State Department dweebs saw coming is not the full spectrum of knowledge on anything. I saw it coming and I'm nobody. I have no doubt smart guys in the military saw it coming, although if they were smart they would downplay it ahead of time so as not to panic the women and the clerical staff. Bremer would fit somewhere in that category.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Bremer says US did not expect insurgency in Iraq

What did he expect, the Spanish Inquisition?

[jmc1969]

The foreigners yes, Iraqis no.

The Iraqi Army often takes hundreds of Sunnis at a time in on raids. And, the idea of mass torturing Sunnis will do more to keep the violence going then it will to solve the violence.

[jmc1969]

Rummy admitted on Fox two weeks ago that he didn't see the insurgency coming as well.

I saw it coming because I was in Europe at the time (in late 2002) and they had al-Douri on Hungarian TV saying point blank that they where preparing an insurgency to meet Americans after they get into Iraq.

[F16Fighter]

Perhaps Bremer expected U.S. policy opinion to be guided by a crystal ball and ouija board.

[henry_thefirst]

Its pretty clear in retrospect that the US really didn't expect such a strong resistance to take place. Pretty obvious there was no plan to handle anything. We wasted an entire year when we could have pacified the country if we had more troops. There was such a failure in strategy. This isn't a liberal observation, its a clear cut military observation. People telling Bremer to screw off for speaking what he feels? Childish and doesn't look at the situation as it was then and is now. Mistakes were made, mistakes are still being made, and it damages our country in ways that makes me shudder.

(Marron, this isn't directed at you, you're just the reply to button i Hit. I'm still trying to figure this place out.)