STING2 said:
or could it be the bullshit so often spewed by many liberals who fail to acknowledge anything the military has accomplished in Afghanistan and Iraq and will only talk about the negative events inside both countries there be creating a distorted image that does not truely reflect the reality on the ground in both places as as so often been expressed by soldiers and marines that have served in both countries.
The State Department and Pentagon have had dozens of plans for the invasion and occupation of Iraq since 1991. No plan is ever perfect and taking down a regime and rebuilding a country is always a tasks that takes years if not decades. The administration chose to make several changes to existing plans that probably contributed to a lot of the problems that soon arose after Saddam had been defeated.
Iraq had been an ongoing problem for years, and the containment regime that had been built in 1991 had totally fallen apart by 2002. There was effectively no no arms embargo or sanctions across the entire Syrian/Iraq border by the year 2000. Airstrikes currently being contemplated against Iran were tried in 1998. Despite Billions of dollars being spent every year, weekly airstrikes on Iraqi air defense and related military targets for 12 years, Saddam had not complied with the Security Council Resolutions necessary for the security of the region and the planet. Everything short of full scale military action to remove the regime and tried and failed to enforce the resolutions vital the security of the world after 12 years. That in a nutshell is why regime change was necessary.
The administration successfully brought democratic elections to Iraq within 20 months after the fall of Saddam. Years earlier than it was done in either Germany or Japan. Nothing in regards to the political development of the country by the administration has demonstrated that they had any idea of installing anyone much less Chalabi.
keep on trying!
[q]
U.N. Finds Baghdad Toll Far Higher Than Cited
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
BAGHDAD, Sept. 20 — A United Nations report released Wednesday says that 5,106 people in Baghdad died violent deaths during July and August, a number far higher than reports that have relied on figures from the city’s morgue.
Across the country, the report found, 3,590 civilians were killed in July — the highest monthly total on record — and 3,009 more were killed in August. There were 4,309 Iraqi civilians reported wounded in August, a 14 percent increase from July.
The report also describes evidence of torture on many of the bodies found in Baghdad, including gouged-out eyeballs and wounds from nails, power drills and acid. “Hundreds of bodies have continued to appear throughout the country bearing signs of severe torture and execution-style killing,” the report found.
As Baghdad has become the main stage for intensified sectarian fighting, the counting of the dead has become a contentious issue. Some American officials say figures released by the Baghdad morgue are inflated. The United Nations report includes the morgue’s figures of 1,855 killed in July and 1,536 killed in August. But it also counts bodies received at other hospitals in the city.
Throughout Baghdad, 2,222 people were killed in August, a 23 percent reduction from the July total of 2,884, the report found. It said the reduction “may be attributed to a degree of improved security” from recent large-scale sweeps by American and Iraqi troops through Baghdad’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
But the report also said casualties had climbed in other regions, notably in Diyala and Mosul. And it said that while the number of killings decreased at the beginning of August, “further increases were evident towards the end of the month in Baghdad and other governorates.”
While most deaths occurred in Baghdad, the report suggests it may not reflect all casualties from other areas because of difficulties collecting information. Anbar Province, an insurgent haven west of the capital and one of the deadliest regions in Iraq, reported no deaths in July.
Torture remains widespread, not only by death squads but also in official detention centers, according to United Nations officials. The report said some detainees showed signs of beating “using electrical cables, wounds in different parts of their bodies, including in the head and genitals, broken bones of legs and hands, electric and cigarette burns.”
Bodies found in Baghdad, the report added, often show signs of torture that include “acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones (back, hands and legs), missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails.”
The report was released as American military officials in Baghdad described a sharp rise in executions in the capital and said that terrorists appeared to have intensified efforts to kill American soldiers.
Killings in the capital appear to have risen sharply in the past week, as close to 200 bodies have been found. An Interior Ministry official said 28 bodies were discovered Wednesday. “This past week, there was a spike in execution-style murders in Baghdad,” Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the chief American military spokesman in Iraq, said Wednesday. “Many bodies found had clear signs of being bound, tortured and executed. We believe death squads and other illegal armed groups are responsible for this type of violence.”
[/q]
and there was never any evidence of ever having a postwar plan, and Rumsfeld
threatened to fire anyonehttp://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-21075sy0sep08,0,2264542.story? who wanted to come up with a postwar plan:
[q]Planning continued to be a challenge.
"The secretary of defense continued to push on us ... that everything we write in our plan has to be the idea that we are going to go in, we're going to take out the regime, and then we're going to leave," Scheid said. "We won't stay."
Scheid said the planners continued to try "to write what was called Phase 4," or the piece of the plan that included post-invasion operations like occupation.
Even if the troops didn't stay, "at least we have to plan for it," Scheid said.
"I remember the secretary of defense saying that he would fire the next person that said that," Scheid said. "We would not do planning for Phase 4 operations, which would require all those additional troops that people talk about today.
"He said we will not do that because the American public will not back us if they think we are going over there for a long war."
[/q]
