|
|
|
 |
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
|
Posted on 07/11/2003 6:56:46 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Edited on 04/13/2004 3:31:33 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON - The small circle of senior civilians in the Defense Department who dominated planning for postwar Iraq failed to prepare for the setbacks that have erupted over the past two months.
The officials didn't develop any real postwar plans because they believed that Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops with open arms and Washington could install a favored Iraqi exile leader as the country's leader. The Pentagon civilians ignored CIA and State Department experts who disputed them, resisted White House pressure to back off from their favored exile leader and when their scenario collapsed amid increasing violence and disorder, they had no backup plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.com ...
|
|
|
|
|
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
|
Hell, I would ask them if they could plan a simple event that would be attended by some 1500 people and see how long it takes to arrange catering, power, insurance, seating, security, lighting, entertainment and the like.
In Iraq we have an event attended by millions! And, there were no vendors to call, no resources and no patient people.(
Just angry ones with guns and grenades.
LOL.. I can think of a few million gullible characters in this country, and I don't mean the Kerry & Dean supporters.
It's been years since the local paper graced my driveway, but they continue to pump out propaganda .. so I just hang their dirty laundry out here for FRee for all to see.
It's....
If there was no planning for post iraq then why did we send thousands of Doctors that specialize in non combat wounds and why did we have 30 huge ships sitting off the coast with food?
Yes, Ann's unleashed a monster. I never realized how fun that word, is until I started applying it to democrats. That's makes seven or eight things I've labeled as treason today.
The military has put a $25 million bounty for the head of Saddam. Maybe the Pentagon should offer a fat reward to whoever finds the master plan for rebuilding Iraq.
It'll likely go unclaimed. A coherent strategy for democratizing and reconstructing Iraq doesn't exist, or, if it does, it's been Washington's best-kept secret.
In the months preceding the invasion, the Pentagon did a splendid job planning the war but an inadequate job preparing for what was to follow. Given the administration's ingrained disdain toward nation building -- and the lack of anyone important in charge of it -- that inattention was not surprising.
With new admissions of faulty intelligence, the rationale to invade Iraq is looking ever more suspect. Having toppled Saddam, there can be no turning back or, at this point, scaling back, the reconstruction. Bringing stability and freedom to Iraq is essential to security in the region -- and to America's credibility.
Three months after the fall of Baghdad, it's far too early to condemn the U.S. effort as a failure. What is becoming clear, however, is that success will require more money, more time, better planning and possibly more troops. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks said this week that the monthly cost of keeping troops in Iraq has doubled to $3.8 billion per month and that the number won't be substantially reduced for the forseeable future.
It will also take more peace-keeping involvement by other countries, though the administration has been loath to admit and hesitant to pursue this.
Since President Bush declared the war over on May 1, more than 70 U.S. soldiers have died -- 31 in combat. Americans are becoming uneasy over the toll and anxious about the future.
If he wants to sustain support at home for rebuilding Iraq, Bush owes Americans his best, most honest assessment about the likely duration and the price of a long-term commitment. He must state the goals clearly and offer a road map to getting there, just as he has in the Mideast. He should do the same for the Iraqis, who have become increasingly agitated over their misery and suspicious over the failure to include them in a transitional government. Bush's offhand comment Thursday on the situation -- ``We're going to have to remain tough'' -- isn't specific enough.
A senior American official told the Mercury News' editorial board that Iraq's electrical grid, sewage and water systems were in far worse condition than the Pentagon expected. Widespread looting and sabotage are hampering U.S. efforts; continuing guerrilla attacks are diverting attention from reconstruction.
So, it's appropriate for Bush to ask Americans for patience. And it's just as appropriate for Americans to ask Bush to level with them -- and to find that missing plan.
The critics may be right, and they may be wrong. However, it is not inconsistent with the errors and worse of previous administrations to believe that this administration did not plan properly to administer Iraq as it really is, and that the result of such planning is before your own eyes on a daily basis.
There is no one to the right of me on Iraq, as I would have turned the whole place into green glass on 9-12-01 just to show people how pissed off we were. Anything that killed or displaced Saddam is fine with me.
However, it is absurd that we did not create and staff POW cages for several hundred thousand Iraqi soldiers (or kill them on sight).
WHY we did not do this is a matter of opinion, but it is certainly credible that we did not do so because of an internationalist fantasy about what conditions in Iraq would be like after the fall of the regime.
Iraq is full of people who hate us, who are seething with resentment and who will try to kill our soldiers at the first available chance. It is MOST unclear that the number and disposition of our forces either anticipated or is now prepared to deal with this reality.
And to advocate for adequacy of numbers, supplies, strategy and tactics on behalf of our forces in not treason, sir, and you are greatly mistaken to call it such.
Mostly what I've heard as critism of our Iraq policies is pointless political sniping. That's what I'm referring to as treason. It has not had practically any constructive ideas. And it's largely dealt with pointless regurgitation of was the war justified after the fact. It serves no purpose except to try to increase dissatisfaction with Bush, but in the process it also encourages our enemies.
Now it turns out that you are one of the few that have alternative ideas to the way Bush is prosecuting this war. You suggest turning Iraq into a glass see or summarily executing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi prisioners.
I don't suppose I can call your ideas treason. For I don't know whether we would have fewer American casualties or whether we would so inflame the middle east, that we would have to turn the entire muslim world into glass.
No your ideas are definitely not treason!. Your ideas are....
But at least you have the welfare of our troops at heart and I appreciate that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.