Rumsfeld Challenges Rice on 'Tactical Errors' in Iraq

Washington Post ^ | April 6, 2006 | Josh White

[jmc1969]

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not know what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was talking about when she said last week that the United States had made thousands of "tactical errors" in handling the war in Iraq.

Speaking during a radio interview on WDAY in Fargo, N.D., on Tuesday, Rumsfeld said calling changes in military tactics during the war "errors" reflects a lack of understanding of warfare. Rumsfeld defended his war plan for Iraq but added that such plans inevitably do not survive first contact with the enemy.

Hennen asked Rumsfeld: "Do you agree with that? Have we made thousands of tactical errors? And does that concern you?"

Rumsfeld replied: "I don't know what she was talking about, to be perfectly honest."

Rumsfeld pointed to the nature of the Iraq war -- unpredictable from the start -- as the reason the United States has had to change tactics over the past three years.

"If you had a static situation and you made a mistake in how you addressed the static situation, that would be one thing," he said. "What you have here is not a static situation, you have a dynamic situation with an enemy that thinks, uses their brain, constantly adjusts, and therefore our commanders have to constantly make tactical adjustments."

[tarator]

Not keeping Saddam's army on the payroll was a strategic mistake.

Uhuh. Remember the "Fallujah Brigade"? That worked real well, didn't it.

[jmc1969]

500 ex-Baathists sent to police a city with several thousand insurgents was going to fail regardless of what you thought about the Fallujah Brigade.

[lepton]

And asked Kerry if Rummy getting fired is one of them...and Kerry said it should be, because the Iraq war is the "worst fought, most inept run war....blah, blah"

If our losses triple...it is still one of the best run wars in history.

[lepton]

Not keeping Saddam's army on the payroll was a strategic mistake.

The part with training was Ba'athist. To keep them on would have been profoundly stupid.

[LK44-40]

Six months into the war/occupation and still being without any means of mass communication with which to reach the Iraqi people....now that was a mistake that struck me as incompetent. Leave it to Al Jezera to let them know what is going on....sheeeesh

[Jumper]

Condi's comments came from a State Department not run by a former General... a State Department that does not play nice with the Commander-in-Chief's other Department, e.g., the Dept of Defense. Having spent 20 with the Department of Army (and yes it is becoming increasingly the Department of Defense), and a little over two with State, it is very evident that liberals hate the military.

Diplomacy does not understand that it is a complimenting segment of America's Arsenal in the War on Terror. Condi did not mean this as a slap, but it shows how she too has to keep her liberal troops marshalled behind her - the Dip's think they are somehow better than the military and they think their Diplomacy is somehow not a complimenting part of America's Power but one tarnished by the military.

When the DOS and DOD work together effectively, our enemies are making political mistakes because the signals they receive from these two policy making and enforcing agencies under the President converg nicely to make each successive mistake more painful. It is when the liberals in Diplomacy and the Senate/Congress send the mixed signals and work against the President that folks in North Korea, Iran and terror-tories like Gaza, the West Bank and Pakistan don't get it. But slowly that is changing and the message is beginning to get out that Bush is here for over 2.5 years and his replacement will probably not be a liberal.

[Donald Meaker]

The Fallujah brigade was something that had to be tried. If it failed, it would suck more jihadi scum into a fight they couldn't win. If they were able to keep order, that could have been a short cut to a stable Iraq, with Sunni forces keeping order in Sunni areas.

A risk? Certainly, but a calculated one. In hindsight, you can kill every jihadi with a single days's supply of knitting needles. Coming up with a distribution plan with out his cooperation is the hard part.

General Grant was asked how long it would take to get to Richmond said "I would agree to be there in about four days, if General Lee becomes party to the agreement. If he objects, the arrival is likely to be delayed."

[Txsleuth]

Alan just asked Kerry what HE would do with the troops...

Kerry said they should be "redeployed over the HORIZON, out of the central place of fighting, perhaps Kuwait...there is a lot of desert in Iraq"...

Asked his other "plans"...he said "we should DEMAND that the Iraqis stand up and fight for their country themselves"...

[ncphinsfan]

"Could be a full on Rino and we have enough of them already."

Couldn't agree more although I would strike the qualifier "could be...".

[Chgogal]

The only tactical mistake the US Military/DOD made was to allow the State Department to take over after the fall of Baghdad, i.e. Bremer and that State Department lady from Yemen. Until then things went relatively smoothly. We have to remember that the Marshall Plan worked because Marshall was a MILITARY man and not a State Department paper pushing only ideas no action man.

[Peach]

Just listening to Kerry makes me almost physically ill.

[section9]

Condi was not trying to insult the armed services. You all should know Condi Rice, who has lectured at the War College and served under Caspar Weinberger at the Pentagon, as someone who should have a little more than passing knowledge about operations. She was critiquing the actions of the Administration as it went into Iraq and transitioned into occupation, the latter of which didn't quite go as planned. She was not criticizing the soldiers. They've performed magnificently.

Rumsfeld knew that. He's not stupid.

The MSM threw the red meat at Rumsfeld and Rummy, pissed at all the favorable publicity and access the Rice has been getting, took the bait when he should have privately communicated with Rice and checked things out beforehand.

But no. He wanted a fight. He's given the MSM what it wanted and, in addition, has given his Commander-in-Chief a distraction that Bush did not need.

Be Seeing You,

Chris