Sunday, May 01, 2005
Gaining Ground?
The New York Times reports "Since Friday, more than 100 Iraqis have been killed and 200 more have been wounded." Remember just a few weeks ago General Myers said "American and Iraqi troops are gaining ground in the two-year-old conflict." What's most disturbing about the continued and increasing attacks is the U.S. military's inability to stop them. Two years after the invasion our intelligence gathering capabilities in Iraq are no better than they were before Georgie took us on this little adventure to find WMDs or was it secure the Iraqi oil fields or was it to bring freedom and democracy to Iraqi or was it...? So after two years of the military and FOX News telling us of the capture of yet another "high ranking terrorist" or the seizure of yet another laptop full of names and addresses it is becoming increasingly clear that not securing the numerous arms dumps wasn't a very good idea and that the continued presence of American troops is helping foment the insurgency. Of course, as The Sunday Times (London) reports Blair and Bush were talking about getting rid of Saddam as early as July 2002 so there really was no need for intelligence. The most damning part of the memo printed by The Sunday Times is this summary of the atmosphere in Washington in the summer of 2002,
The New York Times reports "Since Friday, more than 100 Iraqis have been killed and 200 more have been wounded." Remember just a few weeks ago General Myers said "American and Iraqi troops are gaining ground in the two-year-old conflict." What's most disturbing about the continued and increasing attacks is the U.S. military's inability to stop them. Two years after the invasion our intelligence gathering capabilities in Iraq are no better than they were before Georgie took us on this little adventure to find WMDs or was it secure the Iraqi oil fields or was it to bring freedom and democracy to Iraqi or was it...? So after two years of the military and FOX News telling us of the capture of yet another "high ranking terrorist" or the seizure of yet another laptop full of names and addresses it is becoming increasingly clear that not securing the numerous arms dumps wasn't a very good idea and that the continued presence of American troops is helping foment the insurgency. Of course, as The Sunday Times (London) reports Blair and Bush were talking about getting rid of Saddam as early as July 2002 so there really was no need for intelligence. The most damning part of the memo printed by The Sunday Times is this summary of the atmosphere in Washington in the summer of 2002,
C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.Sums up the whole Iraq debacle. An administration hell bent on invading Iraq, fixing the facts to a pre-determined policy, and no thought about the aftermath. I'm just glad we had that accountability moment back in November, otherwise we might be trouble. I guess Georgie knew what he was doing when he opposed the International Criminal Court.