Thursday, July 28, 2005
Independent Panel: Bush Not Ready For Postwar Iraq
From the "No Fucking Kidding" File (Via the Associated Press):
"WASHINGTON -- An independent panel headed by two former U.S. national security advisers said Wednesday that chaos in Iraq was due in part to inadequate postwar planning.
Planning for reconstruction should match the serious planning that goes into making war, said the panel headed by Samuel Berger and Brent Scowcroft. Berger was national security adviser to Democratic President Clinton. Scowcroft held the same post under Republican Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush but has been critical of the current president's Iraq and Mideast policies.
'A dramatic military victory has been overshadowed by chaos and bloodshed in the streets of Baghdad, difficulty in establishing security or providing essential services, and a deadly insurgency,' the report said.
'The costs, human, military and economic, are high and continue to mount,' said the report, which was sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent foreign policy group.
Two years after a stunning three-week march on Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi military forces have been unable to secure and rebuild the country, and reconstruction has fallen victim to a lack of security, the report said...
...The report said the critical miscalculation of Iraq war-planning was the conclusion that reconstruction would not require more troops than the invasion itself.
Not only are more troops needed but they should be trained for postwar duty, the task force said.
In Iraq, the task force said, postwar requirements did not get enough attention, and there were misjudgments, as well. This, the report said, "left the United States ill-equipped to address public security, governance and economic demands" after the war.
And this, in turn, undermined U.S. foreign policy and gave an early push to the insurgency in Iraq, the task force said.
In Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, the report said, the postwar period has been marked by inefficient operations and billions of dollars of wasted resources."
In response to the report, Senator Pat Roberts is opening an investigation into the Council on Foreign Relations to see if their relations "really qualify as being, you know, foreign" while RNC Chairman/confirmed bachelor/Bush administration apologist Ken Mehlman said today that both Sandy Berger and Brent Scowcroft are traitors to the nation who are aiding and abetting the enemy by criticizing Our Great Leader in his "crusade on terror".
Isn't it great living in George W.'s America?
POSTSCRIPT: I made up the quotations from Pat Roberts and Ken Mehlman. One reader of this blog thought they were real. The problem is, many of the administration apologists and/or Republican Party members say so many outrageous things that even the craziest sounds real. Think Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, who recently suggested the United States should bomb Islam's holy sites if the U.S. is attacked again by terrorists. You wouldn't think that's a real quotation - but it is. So even stupid quotations like the ones I made up sound real in this day and age.
Unfortunately.
"WASHINGTON -- An independent panel headed by two former U.S. national security advisers said Wednesday that chaos in Iraq was due in part to inadequate postwar planning.
Planning for reconstruction should match the serious planning that goes into making war, said the panel headed by Samuel Berger and Brent Scowcroft. Berger was national security adviser to Democratic President Clinton. Scowcroft held the same post under Republican Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush but has been critical of the current president's Iraq and Mideast policies.
'A dramatic military victory has been overshadowed by chaos and bloodshed in the streets of Baghdad, difficulty in establishing security or providing essential services, and a deadly insurgency,' the report said.
'The costs, human, military and economic, are high and continue to mount,' said the report, which was sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent foreign policy group.
Two years after a stunning three-week march on Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi military forces have been unable to secure and rebuild the country, and reconstruction has fallen victim to a lack of security, the report said...
...The report said the critical miscalculation of Iraq war-planning was the conclusion that reconstruction would not require more troops than the invasion itself.
Not only are more troops needed but they should be trained for postwar duty, the task force said.
In Iraq, the task force said, postwar requirements did not get enough attention, and there were misjudgments, as well. This, the report said, "left the United States ill-equipped to address public security, governance and economic demands" after the war.
And this, in turn, undermined U.S. foreign policy and gave an early push to the insurgency in Iraq, the task force said.
In Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, the report said, the postwar period has been marked by inefficient operations and billions of dollars of wasted resources."
In response to the report, Senator Pat Roberts is opening an investigation into the Council on Foreign Relations to see if their relations "really qualify as being, you know, foreign" while RNC Chairman/confirmed bachelor/Bush administration apologist Ken Mehlman said today that both Sandy Berger and Brent Scowcroft are traitors to the nation who are aiding and abetting the enemy by criticizing Our Great Leader in his "crusade on terror".
Isn't it great living in George W.'s America?
POSTSCRIPT: I made up the quotations from Pat Roberts and Ken Mehlman. One reader of this blog thought they were real. The problem is, many of the administration apologists and/or Republican Party members say so many outrageous things that even the craziest sounds real. Think Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, who recently suggested the United States should bomb Islam's holy sites if the U.S. is attacked again by terrorists. You wouldn't think that's a real quotation - but it is. So even stupid quotations like the ones I made up sound real in this day and age.
Unfortunately.
