Posted on 03/12/2006 11:00:01 PM PST by jmc1969
The war was barely a week old when Gen. Tommy Franks threatened to fire the Army's field commander.
From the first days of the invasion, American forces had tangled with fanatical Saddam Fedayeen paramilitary fighters. Gen. Wallace, had told reporters that his soldiers needed to delay their advance on the capital to suppress the Fedayeen.
Soon after, General Franks phoned Gen. McKiernan, to warn that he might relieve General Wallace.
A US Marines intelligence officer warned, that the Fedayeen would continue to mount attacks after the fall of Baghdad since many of the enemy fighters were being bypassed in the race to the capital.
Instead of sending additional troops to impose order after the fall of Baghdad, Rumsfeld and General Franks canceled the deployment of the First Cavalry Division.
General McKiernan was unhappy with the decision, which was made at a time when ground forces were needed to deal with the chaos.
General Franks eventually went along. He later acknowledged that the defense secretary had put the issue on the table. "Rumsfeld did in fact make the decision to off-ramp the First Cavalry Division," General Franks said in an earlier interview.
General McKiernan, the senior United States general in Iraq at the time, was not happy about the decision but did not protest.
"The insurgency surprised us and we had not developed a comprehensive option for dealing with this possibility, one that would have included more military police, civil affairs units, interrogators, and Special Operations forces," said Gen. Keane of the Army, who served as the chief of staff.
"If we had planned for an insurgency, we probably would have deployed the First Cavalry Division and it would have assisted greatly with the occupation. "This was not just an intelligence community failure, but also our failure as senior military leaders."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping
War always has surprises....
Especially when you don't plan for the most routine of them.
UNREAL. Do not these people ever read a single volume of modern history?
How are you suppose to know what the enemy has planned?
We had tanks, they didn't!
The DRUMBEAT by the Lefties continues and many here are getting sucked into it!
As usual, I failed to learn anything from a NY Slimes article other than reminded of the times editors lack of ability to print insightful new material.
Huh? What are you talking about? They didn't have anything planned except for the most typical, routine tactics. Even puny little Grenada resisted our invasion.
They did not plan for resistance at all. They expected merely to pummel the standing army into oblivion, march into Baghdad and the other cities through a cascade of champagne and rose petals, fire the entire Iraqi administration from top to bottom, issue decrees that the gratefully liberated natives would jump to implement, and start pumping out oil.
Well, I guess the best that can be said for next time America goes to war is those types of delusions won't be a factor.
My phrasing is confusing, so here it goes again:
The Iraqis didn't have anything planned except for the most typical, routine tactics. Even puny little Grenada resisted our invasion.
The Pentagon did not plan for resistance at all. They expected merely to pummel the standing army into oblivion, march into Baghdad and the other cities through a cascade of champagne and rose petals, fire the entire Iraqi administration from top to bottom, issue decrees that the gratefully liberated natives would jump to implement, and start pumping out oil.
You've swallowed the lefties propaganda!
I think we would have been better off if we killed more of the enemy in our drive across Iraq.It's impossible to win a war without killing or capturing thousands of soldiers from the other side.
Sheesh, we won the battle of Baghdad and conquered the tyrants. Should we give it back?
Please go back and reread the history of WWII. The invasion of Europe is replete with blunders, miscalculations, failed opportunities, and unheeded warning signs.
In other words, hindsight is always 20/20.
Mission Accomplished
march into Baghdad
Mission Accomplished
and the other cities through a cascade of champagne and rose petals, fire the entire Iraqi administration from top to bottom
Mission Accomplished
, issue decrees that the gratefully liberated natives would jump to implement, and start pumping out oil.
Mission Accomplished
Why do you lothe victory?
General Franks should run for office. He's got my vote.
You got that exactly right...the whole purpose of the article.
Our objective was hardly merely to occupy Baghdad and remove Saddam Hussein. If that were our only objective, then we should've withdrawn our forces in April 2003 once it was achieved.
The only "surprise" in the entire Iraqi affair was that they didn't roll over and play dead. Period. That's it. That they were willing to pick up guns and shoot back at us, oftentimes on their own individual initiative. That was the only "surprise".
None of this is anything new that I'm saying. I was saying this over and over back in 2003. I just don't discuss this much anymore because what's the point? The difference back then was that there was still time to correct the course; now things are more or less on the track that they're on, and there's not much left to do to alter the outcome.
So, I guess we can just all sit back and enjoy the ride! When the next war comes along, then we will probably do what America has always done: We will start it by refighting the last war, until we realize yet again that each war is unique.
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