We Didn’t Expect An Insurgency?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The War On Terrorism, War
I just watched Dateline tonight, and the segment on Bremer was eye-opening. What was particularly frustrating was learning that Bremer sent personal correspondence about the lack of adequate manpower to Rumsfeld and he didn’t even have the decency to respond.
Jeezus…
More from Reuters…
WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Paul Bremer, who led the U.S. civilian occupation authority in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, has admitted the United States did not anticipate the insurgency in the country, NBC Television said on Friday.Bremer, interviewed by the network in connection with release of his book on Iraq, recounted the decision to disband the Iraqi army quickly after arriving in Baghdad, a move many experts consider a major miscalculation.
When asked who was to blame for the subsequent Iraqi rebellion, in which thousands of Iraqis and Americans have died, Bremer said “we really didn’t see the insurgency coming,” the network said in a news release.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Fire Rumsfeld Now. Otherwise, Bush is a horrible manager who simply can’t admit one of his subordinates screwed up BIG time.
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January 9th, 2006 at 1:37 am
Meh. And how much is that just Bremer being self-serving?
The President himself said in his much-maligned aircraft carrier speech where he was (quite wrongly) accused of stating that the entire Iraq mission was accomplished that parts of the country remained quite dangerous and there was a whole lot of work yet to get done.
Rumsfeld–who in my estimation is the best SecDef of my lifetime, so you know my bias–has said many times that the insurgency was worse than we figured, not that we never thought there’d be one. I myself continue to be surprised the insurgency isn’t FAR worse and hasn’t caused FAR more damage–I expected way worse when we went in, and most of the Pentagon projections were worse.
What I generally find is that if you’ve ever managed any real-world project of more than a tiny handful of people, you find that there will always, ALWAYS be mistakes–underestimates, overestimates, nasty surprises, and so on. None of that is unusual.
A simple question to ask yourself, or any other critic: you say it was wrong to disband the old Iraqi military. Okay, fine, that’s easy to say. Were you on record as saying that AT THE TIME, or are you just engaging in hindsight? And is there any possibility–any at all–in your mind that if we had NOT disbanded the old Iraqi military, things might not be worse? You are CERTAIN, are you, that we would have had fewer problems? And you said so back at the time, and aren’t just saying it now?
January 9th, 2006 at 2:04 am
Oh yeah…it’s just because he’s trying to sell a book. Dean, come on. You’re coming out of the gate with that? Pretty weak, partisan hackish stuff my friend… I’m just saying…
When did I say it was wrong to disband the Iraqi Army? I certainly don’t ever recall saying anything of the sort. In fact, Bremer countered those critics quite effectively in the Dateline piece, and I believe him that there really wasn’t much of an army to begin with. So why did I show that paragraph of the Reuters piece? Well, because it discusses that he talked about the whole “disbanding” issue in the Dateline piece. That’s all.
I am not one of those critics Dean. Sorry.
Hey, fair enough, but when your guy in Iraq is saying, “More troops please”, you shouldn’t ignore him in favor of the military theory by Rumsfeld who is snug as a bug in Washington. That’s ridiculously bad management, and both you and I know that.
Well, too bad they didn’t take those Pentagon estimates into account. And if Bremer didn’t anticipate the insurgency and Rumsfeld didn’t anticipate the insurgency, then I’m curious as to what your point is? There were voices in our own government who were saying the WMDs weren’t there too. And they got ignored in favor of the “good” news.
What Bremer is trying to say now is that we still haven’t effectively addressed the realities on the ground. Still. That’s telling, and frankly, what it looks like is Bush and Rumsfeld playing politics and trying to maintain the guise of being right instead of really caring about what’s right for Iraq.
And what’s right for Iraq is pretty much all I care about right now, and if I think somebody is putting politics before the safety and well being of our soldiers and the people of Iraq, then I think they have to go…plain and simple.
Thanks for the comment.
January 9th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Since when has Bush not been a so-so manager who has trouble seeing the faults, even fatal ones, in those who are loyal to him? Management skill and clarity of vision have never been this president’s strong suits.
He has a strong suit or two, but not these ones.
January 9th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Hmm, whatever happened to “The buck stops here!”?
January 9th, 2006 at 9:29 pm
I don’t think he has ever cared about civil liberties – he sees his job as protecting us, not protecting our liberties.