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The War Over the War
The Washington Times | Frontpagemagazine ^ | May 19, 2008 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 05/19/2008 5:05:45 AM PDT by SJackson

The war in Iraq is in its sixth year — and we, the public, are in our sixth year of reading warring accounts about it.

The most recent is Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez's "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story." Gen. Sanchez, a senior ground commander in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, faults L. Paul Bremer, the top civilian in Iraq from mid-2003-04, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the errors and mishaps of the occupation.

The new Sanchez book follows Douglas Feith's new book "War and Decision." The former defense undersecretary, who oversaw many original plans for postwar reconstruction of Iraq, makes the case that the State Department and Mr. Bremer thwarted Defense Department efforts to hasten Iraqi autonomy and form a new Iraqi army. But Mr. Bremer himself, in "My Year in Iraq," complained about lack of support from both military and civilian officials like Gen. Sanchez and Mr. Feith.

And don't forget "At the Center of the Storm" by former CIA Director George Tenet or "American Soldier" by Tommy Franks, the commander who oversaw the 2003 invasion. Both offered their own versions of where others went wrong.

Memoirs by those involved in some way in the Iraq war (or the broader war on terror) have grown into an entire industry. Former counterterrorism director Richard Clark's "Against All Enemies," former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer's "Imperial Hubris" and former Ambassador Joe Wilson's "The Politics of Truth" all tell stories of how someone else did them in.

What are we to make of all these contradictory accounts?

(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iraq; vdh; victordavishanson; wot

1 posted on 05/19/2008 5:05:45 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: SJackson
Is any of this finger-pointing new? Hardly.

The people doing the most finger pointing are usually the most guilty.

2 posted on 05/19/2008 5:14:48 AM PDT by The_Victor (If all I want is a warm feeling, I should just wet my pants.)
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To: SJackson
What are we to make of all these contradictory accounts?

I dunno, you tell me.

3 posted on 05/19/2008 5:38:34 AM PDT by Rudder ("There is only one chief. Obey him." [Rush Limbaugh, April 30, 2008])
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To: Rudder

He couldn’t handle the job so now he writes a book. BIG DEAL.


4 posted on 05/19/2008 5:54:23 AM PDT by snowman1
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To: SJackson

It’s not called the Fog of War for nothing.


5 posted on 05/19/2008 5:55:03 AM PDT by TADSLOS (The GOP death march to the gravesite is underway.)
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To: SJackson; Allegra; big'ol_freeper; Lil'freeper; TrueKnightGalahad; blackie; Larry Lucido; ...
Whenever I hear some Liberal Democrat putz say, "This war in Iraq has lasted longer than World War Two and there is no end in sight!" I wish to high heaven I could be George W. Bush for just one moment to reply:

"Okay, in World War Two, lead by Democrats if I recall correctly, there were overall some 14 million men and women in in American uniforms and the use of nuclear weapons was allowed. Okay, give me that and I'll give you an end in sight!"

6 posted on 05/19/2008 8:14:48 AM PDT by Bender2 ("I've got a twisted sense of humor, and everything amuses me." RAH Beyond this Horizon)
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To: Bender2

Also, the Allied bombing campaigns had few if any restrictions. The difference between total war and limited war.


7 posted on 05/19/2008 11:38:47 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
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