US Failed to Honestly Assess Iraq Threat - Report

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1223-02.htm

Published on Thursday, December 23, 2004 by Reuters

US Failed to Honestly Assess Iraq Threat - Report

by Carol Giacomo

WASHINGTON - The United States is facing increasingly deadly attacks in Iraq because, as in the Vietnam war, it failed to honestly assess facts on the ground, according to a new think tank report.

Center for Strategic and International Studies
The report, prepared by Anthony Cordesman, senior fellow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said administration spokesmen had appeared to live "in a fantasyland" when giving accounts of events in Iraq.

Cordesman, a former Pentagon official who has made several trips to Iraq, said Iraqi spies were a serious threat to U.S. operations and that there was no evidence insurgent numbers were declining despite vigorous U.S. and Iraqi counterattacks.

The report(.pdf) was updated after Tuesday's attack on a U.S. base in Mosul which killed 22 people. Defense officials said the explosion was apparently caused by a suicide bomber, underscoring the problem of infiltrators in U.S. operations.

..more..

[jimshoes]

1. Dishonest Dubya

but we already knew that. There's a special place in hell reserved for this bunch.

[ismnotwasm]

2. Hot off the press

But can we say, No shit? I seem to remember world-wide protests, and stuff. I'm going to be sick. Again.

[LynnTheDem]

3. When will they point out 1/2 USA and the vast majority of the world KNEW

this BEFORE bush launched his war of aggression against Iraq?

Just wondering.

[girl gone mad]

5. The media is as much in denial about it as the WH.

They refused to air any criticisms of the war plan before we invaded, and now they refuse to even admit that such criticisms existed.

[G_j]

9. in a nut shell

that is sadly the way it has happened.
How can one not end up losing all respect for the media?
The world peace demonstrations were historic. Never in history had the people of the world voiced such a strong message, that war is not the answer. You would think this never happened. All we get is a bunch of over paid stuffed shirts pontificating on a bunch of BS. :-(

[jayfish]

10. Criticisms?

Well that would interfere with all of the money making, wouldn't it. How would CNNs' ratings have fared if after the war-drums and the "March To War" graphics they ran a sobering piece on the cost of aggressive wars?

Jay

[TahitiNut]

4. But the US military blames Iraq for both the attacks and the faillure to .

... stop them. It's a wonderful "not my job" stance of taking absolutely no responsibility. General Carter Ham, when asked if he needed "more boots on the ground," said that the failures didn't lie with the US military but with the Iraqi security forces for not stopping the attacks.

So, in Ham's "military mind" it's the fault of Iraqi insurgents that the violence is taking place and the fault of the Iraqi security forces that it's not being stopped. (I wonder where he got his lobotomy.)

[Bono71]

6. File this headline under the "Duh" file. n/t

[txaslftist]

7. No kidding....so bring the boys (and girls) home!!

[Cogito ergo doleo]

8. Huh. n/t

[complain jane]

11. the most ironic thing about many Bush supporters is that

their own leaders feel that their base is so stupid they can pull the wool over their eyes 24/7 with relatively little effort- and it works. The same a-holes that I've been slugging it out with on various boards who tell me I'm an idiot for my views are voting for and defending someone who knows he can get away with absolutely anything because his base is a bunch of lemmings.

I'm currently embroiled in a "discussion" somewhere else with a right winger who sounds like an eight year old. Yet he's a grown man with children. He screams in all caps at me, how could we POSSIBLY question the wisdom of George W. Bush, he's well on his way to being known as the "GREATEST PRESIDENT TO EVER HAVE LIVED" and this clown actually means it. Whenever you press on his bubble with actual pointy facts he disappears for a week, and returns as if nothing ever happened.

I just don't get it. It's frightening. The willful ignorance and complacency of all these people in the face of all of this information is just mind boggling.

I probably should cease to be surprised but that stage never seems to come.

:shrug:

[NYC]

13. H.L. Mencken re moronic president:

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of
the people. On some great and glorious day the plain
folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at
last and the White House will be adorned by a
downright moron."

-- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

[MSgt213]

16. Well you keep up the good fight. My frustration level is to high for me

to continue to put of with the chowder heads who don't want to think.

[0007]

22. I know what ya mean, been there and wondered why later

I wasted my time with folks that don't know the facts. An old lady the other day tried to tell me that Clinton raped a girl on top of the desk in the Oval Office. She claimed to be a politically astute junkie....I walked.

more from Common Dreams... As in most insurgencies, including Vietnam, sympathizers within the Iraqi government and Iraqi forces, as well as Iraqis working for the coalition, media and non-governmental organizations, "often provided excellent human intelligence (about U.S. and coalition operations) without violently taking part in the insurgency," the report said.

Cordesman said U.S. attempts to vet these Iraqis cannot solve the problem because "it seems likely that family, clan and ethnic loyalties have made many supposedly loyal Iraqis become at least part-time sources."

Since early 2004, insurgents have suffered tactical defeats in Baghdad, Falluja and elsewhere. Still, "there is no evidence that the number of insurgents is declining as a result of coalition and Iraqi attacks to date," Cordesman said.

[fshrink]

12. That must be re-framed version for "lie".

[Solly Mack]

14. Bush Inc has lied throughout...beginning to now. He got rid of

people within the Pentagon who dared to question his vision.

The lies he sold so many of the American people have cost thousands and thousands of lives.

They'll continue to promote the "fantasyland"...no matter what....they will NEVER admit they lied. They will NEVER admit they are WRONG.

and a sad fact is, many Americans don't want them to either. They are content with the lies. Accepting the lies means they don't have to do anything about them

The truth would challenge their beliefs...beliefs they cling to so dearly.....beliefs they must cling to because the truth demands action..
and many Americans would rather blindly embrace the lie than shake up their comfortable existence by taking a stand.

[G_j]

18. when someone WANTS to be lied to

there is not much that can be done.
As you say, there were people in the Pentagon and the CIA saying this long before the occupation.

"just keep wispering those sweet, sweet lies in our ears."

[Solly Mack]

20. You're correct....can't do much w/ those who want to be lied to

Bush knows that too....in fact, he's banking on that....and them.

[texanshatingbush]

15. "US Failed to Honestly Assess Iraq Threat - Report"

Perhaps if Bush and Cheney had performed their service in Vietnam instead having other priorities, they would have understood that you can't win a war in someone else's country, where you can't tell friend from foe, and where you're trying to coerce the locals into doing something that has never been part of their culture. The best and most expensive army in the world can never win against in-country insurgents who strike and then fade back into the population.

I'm just waiting for the "peace with honor" exit strategy to be resurrected. If that happens, then all the lives lost and maimed, and all the treasure spent, will be for naught.

[Javaman]

17. Anyone ever read, "the ugly American"?

There is a classic scene in the book dealing with a spy. Basically, the concept was: the spy's are everywhere. Even the most trusted local, has to deal with his daily life and the people in it. They can never be trusted 100%.
When we invade a country, this is the best hoped for help we can expect. It won't get better.
If anyone has read any history on occupied France during WWII, you will know what happened to the people who collaborated with the Germans.
Iraq: Same thing 60 years later.

[rocktivity]

19. Congratulations! This story is the winner of

THE 2004 ROCKNATION DU/LBN "YOU CALL THIS NEWS?" AWARD!!!!!

:headbang:
rocknation

[teryang]

21. The new fantasyland

The drumbeat now that the policy failure is obvious to anyone smarter than a box of rocks:

More troops, committed longer will somehow improve the situation.

This is the latest propaganda campaign.

Republican military strategy: digging yourself into a hole- dig deeper.

General McCaffrey- when questioned specifically about what was needed to turn things around other than vague recommendations for more troops, longer committed, said "I wouldn't say specifically, the recommendations will come from the NCOs and leaders on the scene, as tactics change so will the responses." What political nonsense!

He also actually said something like "we need to protect our position in Iraq better by killing the threats making inroads into it."

Er, who's country is it? Several experts have been pushing this line of nonsensical bullshit. The answer is political not military. When military means fail, then you have to adjust your political objectives BECAUSE THEY ARE UNSUSTAINABLE, BUT WHAT IS BEING PUSHED NOW BY THE ESTABLISHMENT IS COMMITTING MORE RESOURCES TO AN UNSUSTAINABLE POLICY.

He also stated that greater incentives would rally young Americans to the cause. That approach doesn't even merit comment.

[lawladyprof]

23. And what is so infuriating is that no one in the MSM is saying

that "Gee whiz, ya think all those folk who protested early in 2003 might have been on to something."