A cascading series of misjudgments
By Creature
Today the NYT publishes an extensive look at the Bush administration's failure to plan (or I should say, the throwing away and disregarding of extensive planning) for the formation of the new Iraqi police force soon after the fall of Saddam in 2003. It's very easy for the likes of me, on the far-left-wing of the political spectrum, to throw out the incompetence charge against Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, but after reading this article the incompetence charge seems like a compliment.
There comes a point when one must ask if the "cascading series of misjudgments" by the criminals who occupy the White House is willful. I don't know exactly what they would have to gain by insuring Iraq would collapse into chaos, but it seems that is exactly what they wished to occur. Maybe chaos means more contracts for their crony friends. Maybe chaos means an excuse to point to Iraq as the terrorist bogeyman that it was not before the war. Maybe they wanted chaos to insure that American troops would stay in country. Stay to be ready and on the border of the bigger fish the neo-cons want to fry, that being Iran. I don't know the answer, but the result is clear. An Iraq in continued chaos.
The NYT piece is a long one, but it's a highly recommend read all the way through. So, please read more.
And, for those of you who may claim, oh here's another liberal blogger pointing out only the gloom and doom coming out of Iraq, I will also link you to the good news out of Iraq today. In a step the right-wing blogosphere is hailing as vindication of the Bush administration's policy the Iraqi parliament swore in its first permanent government since the fall of Saddam. Sure, this is a positive step, but let's also remember that two key positions were not filled. Positions that need to be filled if the government is to stop the descent into civil war and ethnic cleansing that mars Iraq's progress today.
(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)
Today the NYT publishes an extensive look at the Bush administration's failure to plan (or I should say, the throwing away and disregarding of extensive planning) for the formation of the new Iraqi police force soon after the fall of Saddam in 2003. It's very easy for the likes of me, on the far-left-wing of the political spectrum, to throw out the incompetence charge against Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, but after reading this article the incompetence charge seems like a compliment.
Like so much that has defined the course of the war, the realities on the ground in Iraq did not match the planning in Washington. An examination of the American effort to train a police force in Iraq, drawn from interviews with several dozen American and Iraqi officials, internal police reports and visits to Iraqi police stations and training camps, reveals a cascading series of misjudgments by White House and Pentagon officials, who repeatedly underestimated the role the United States would need to play in rebuilding the police and generally maintaining order.
There comes a point when one must ask if the "cascading series of misjudgments" by the criminals who occupy the White House is willful. I don't know exactly what they would have to gain by insuring Iraq would collapse into chaos, but it seems that is exactly what they wished to occur. Maybe chaos means more contracts for their crony friends. Maybe chaos means an excuse to point to Iraq as the terrorist bogeyman that it was not before the war. Maybe they wanted chaos to insure that American troops would stay in country. Stay to be ready and on the border of the bigger fish the neo-cons want to fry, that being Iran. I don't know the answer, but the result is clear. An Iraq in continued chaos.
The NYT piece is a long one, but it's a highly recommend read all the way through. So, please read more.
And, for those of you who may claim, oh here's another liberal blogger pointing out only the gloom and doom coming out of Iraq, I will also link you to the good news out of Iraq today. In a step the right-wing blogosphere is hailing as vindication of the Bush administration's policy the Iraqi parliament swore in its first permanent government since the fall of Saddam. Sure, this is a positive step, but let's also remember that two key positions were not filled. Positions that need to be filled if the government is to stop the descent into civil war and ethnic cleansing that mars Iraq's progress today.
(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)
posted by creature at
12:16 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home