"Rumsfeld implicitly admits lack of planning for Iraqi insurgency"

[npincus]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1520&ncid=1520&e=2&u=/afp/20041027/pl_afp/us_iraq_planning_041027084229


Rumsfeld hammers in another nail- sort of. In these last frenetic days of the campaign this probably won't get much attention, but it's just more validation from the horse's mouth that their pre-war planning SUCKED.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has implicitly admitted the Pentagon had no specific plans for handling a widespread insurgency in the aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq, but still insisted US pre-war planning was "good."

<snip>

The remarks, made on Tueday in an interview with Cincinnati, Ohio, radio station, came amid a barrage of charges from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) and his aides that the White House had failed to adequately plan for the possibility of a guerrilla war in Iraq.


"The postwar plan ... was designed to see that they were not able to destroy their oil wells, that they were not able to blow up their bridges, that they did not have massive humanitarian crisis with internally displaced people and refugees and food crisis, and that the war was conducted in a speedy way so that it would not run the risk of destabilizing neighboring countries," Rumsfeld said when asked to comment on the accusations.


He said all those goals had been accomplished, but he did not mention guerrilla operations among the contingencies the military had planned for, and referred to them as a problem that was being handled on an ad hoc basis.

[acmavm]

1. 5:39 a.m. CST

You have given the news article Rumsfeld implicitly admits lack of planning for Iraqi insurgency a rating of 5.
Its current average rating is 4.38 with 87 vote(s).

[ClintonTyree]

2. Asshole............

"The postwar plan ... was designed to see that they were not able to destroy their oil wells, that they were not able to blow up their bridges........"

At that time they probably didn't have the resources to achieve those aims. After stealing 580 tons of unguarded explosives it makes their mission all the more easy. They have enough explosives to blow up half the country now and more than enough to kill every U.S. soldier in Iraq.

The neo-cons took control of this war, and botched it. If they'd listened to their Generals these problems wouldn't exist. But their gigantic egos got in the way and the result is a quagmire from which me may not be able to extract ourselves from for many, many years.

[npincus]

3. you've got that right

sorry, but I believe we should get the hell out of there NOW, wait until things stabilize and we are asked back to assist with reconstruction by whatever government emerges after.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. What was that part after "oil wells"?

He lost me right about there.

[No Mandate Here.]

4. I haven't seen any threads

that react to the Frontline show last night.. I watched it (and the game) and it seemed to throw a LOT, if not all, of the blame for the FUBAR in Iraq to Rummy and Wolfie.

I wonder how the Cons and Freepers are taking this, or do they have their TVs programmed to not receive this 'Libral' stuff -- just like mine will not receive Faux news.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. But he blamed it on his band playing the wrong song.

n/t