Blanked Out

Both in our minds… (emphasis added)

Most Americans, according to the poll, seem to have separate opinions about the war in Iraq and terrorism, with more than half (52 percent) saying the war in Iraq is a distraction from the U.S. efforts against terrorists who want to attack targets inside the United States. - CNN

And on the ground:

President Bush has authorized the U.S. Marine Corps to recall 2,500 troops to active duty because there are not enough volunteers returning for duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, Marine commanders announced Tuesday.

(…)

“Since this is going to be a long war, we thought it was judicious and prudent at this time to be able to use a relatively small portion of those Marines to help us augment our units,” Stratton said, according to the AP. - CNN

That’s an egregious blank-out and pure spin. There have never been enough troops in Iraq and we knew that from the beginning. Gen. Shinseki did not pull any punches when in 2003 he told the government point blank that in order to secure Iraq:

…several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We’re talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems.

And so it takes a significant ground- force presence to maintain a safe and secure environment, to ensure that people are fed, that water is distributed, all the normal responsibilities that go along with administering a situation like this.

The response? Two civilians decided they knew better:

“The idea that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces I think is far off the mark,” Mr. Rumsfeld said.

(…)

In his testimony, Mr. Wolfowitz ticked off several reasons why he believed a much smaller coalition peacekeeping force than General Shinseki envisioned would be sufficient to police and rebuild postwar Iraq. He said there was no history of ethnic strife in Iraq, as there was in Bosnia or Kosovo. He said Iraqi civilians would welcome an American-led liberation force that “stayed as long as necessary but left as soon as possible,” but would oppose a long-term occupation force.

Well, he got it half right. I’m still puzzled why the gassing of the Kurds or the campaign against the Shia after the Gulf War never counted as “ethnic strife”.

Always remember that even after the Iraq War became inevitable, it did not have to be this way.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 6:16 pm and is filed under Iraq War, Communications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.