Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Screwing up, Dubya Style
The following article is of a reporter who almost lead the Iraqi Army for one day
One of the reasons I didn't support the war was because I knew who would be running things. Can you imagine the morons who would tell you exactly how they will invade your country. I knew about the war on the cheap, less ground troops and the privitization experiment; not because I am a Genius but I do know how to read. The PNAC white paper detailed all of the steps taken by Rummy and crew and they were all wrong as we see unfolding everyday.
If I were a military planner I would suggest the following things happens; Use overwhelming force to control everything, Become the people's Champion show them the sharp contrast between you America and Saddam. Use the "Liberated peoples" to rebuild their own country and pay them a decent rate.
Too simple?
Not really we did the same thing during the rebuilding of Germany and Japan and that seems to have worked out very well!
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The following article is of a reporter who almost lead the Iraqi Army for one day
One of the first things you learn upon visiting an Arab home is the enormous value placed upon hospitality. Yet we invaded a sovereign country, but didn't bother to bring gifts. If we could pull off the Berlin airlift, I wondered, why couldn't we get 1,000 electrical generators and 100 water trucks into Baghdad? No official I talked to offered a good explanation.
Despite the euphoria in the White House over Iraq's liberation, on the ground I kept hearing this refrain: "It was better under Saddam." Given my opinion of the dictator, that was shocking to hear -- but I had lessons to learn about Arab pride and Iraqi culture. "Many young people I know cried when his statue fell," a student in her mid-20s told me as we talked by candlelight inside her apartment. (She was afraid to venture outside for fear of rape.) "He was Baba Saddam -- Father Saddam -- and he was all we ever knew."
Because U.S. postwar planning was so meager, Iraqis who wanted to help the Americans often found nowhere to turn. The coalition haughtily -- and foolishly -- ensconced itself on Saddam's old palace grounds (it's now called the Green Zone), where few Baghdadis would ever willingly tread, and fewer still wished to brave checkpoint after checkpoint to enter. Filling crucial civilian-military assistance and liaison roles were Special Operations reservists, some thrown into the chaos with little or no expertise in their assignments. I recall meeting an aircraft specialist in civilian life who was suddenly, according to the logic of the U.S. Army, supposed to run a water-purification plant.
One of the reasons I didn't support the war was because I knew who would be running things. Can you imagine the morons who would tell you exactly how they will invade your country. I knew about the war on the cheap, less ground troops and the privitization experiment; not because I am a Genius but I do know how to read. The PNAC white paper detailed all of the steps taken by Rummy and crew and they were all wrong as we see unfolding everyday.
If I were a military planner I would suggest the following things happens; Use overwhelming force to control everything, Become the people's Champion show them the sharp contrast between you America and Saddam. Use the "Liberated peoples" to rebuild their own country and pay them a decent rate.
Too simple?
Not really we did the same thing during the rebuilding of Germany and Japan and that seems to have worked out very well!
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