Although this editorial is from Nov 03, I thought it was worth repeating.
Iraq is a military and political mess, and it's not getting better. The insurgency by Sunni Baathist cadres backed up by a presence of foreign terrorists is going to grow more violent. Our casualties will continue to increase. Baghdad and other cities are wracked by small arms and remote bomb ambushes and by mortar and rocket attacks, and are closed to commercial air traffic. The mayhem has driven much of the international aid and political community out of the contested zones. Assassins stalk the emerging Iraqi leadership to separate collaborators from the Coalition. Saddam Hussein remains a fugitive and therefore a terror in the minds of all Iraqis, and our allies shrink back from supporting us with serious levels of resources or troops.
Our Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is in denial of reality. He publicly states the situation on the ground in Iraq is being distorted by the media and characterizes the violence as comparable to Washington, D.C., crime levels. He has denied there is a "guerrilla war" and insisted that the only opposition is a handful of "dead enders." He points with increasing defensiveness to the small number of coalition forces (besides the courageous Brits) and the increasing hours of electricity per day as evidence that his policies are working.
Snip
Thousands of reservists have been called up. The coming months will see a continued rapid drawdown of deployed U.S. military combat power in Iraq (160,000 to 103,000) and an increasing reliance on 43,000 deploying reserve forces. This is driven not by military logic but by the realities of military end strength. We need to add six more activated National Guard brigades and 80,000 personnel to the Army authorized active-duty force. Mr. Rumsfeld must level with the administration and Congress on the coming crisis in Army active and reserve personnel and equipment readiness.
snip
But none of this gets to the heart of the problem, which is that the U.S. military forces in Iraq are being forced into a drawdown situation. "Iraqification" doesn't address the question of the much broader U.S. Army manpower shortages, and it concerns me that Mr. Rumsfeld himself has said that he fails to see evidence that a shortfall exists. "Iraqification" may prove to be an alibi for broader inaction. Mr. Rumsfeld has so dominated the national security process with the force of his personality that his views on manpower are not being sufficiently challenged in Congress. The Joint Chiefs of Staff will have to candidly face up to this issue in the coming months, notwithstanding the political considerations involved.
http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/OpinionJournal.com/2003/11/30/324355?from=search&criteria=Rumsfield%27s+Denial&exact=&all=&exclude=&author=McCaffrey&pubId=5&pubBy=id&pubTypeId=0&refineDays=1825Rumsfield is a spherical fool and bastard.
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