The consequences have been catastrophic

[kpete]

Posted on Mon, Apr. 17, 2006
U.S. ignored Shiite militias, focused on Sunni insurgency
By Tom Lasseter
Knight Ridder Newspapers

"The American politicians couldn't understand the deepness and complications of the region," said Falah al-Nakib, the interior minister from June 2004 to April 2005, who said he raised the militia problem and the growing Iranian influence in Iraq with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. "They didn't take us seriously."

U.S. officials long have known that the Shiite militias could become a problem.

Officials in Washington said alarms about the growing power of the militias began in late 2003 and were raised throughout 2004 and 2005 by a variety of agencies, including the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Senior officials dismissed the reports as "nay-saying" and "hand-wringing," said two former senior officials in Washington who were responsible for Iraq policy through most or all of that period and one top official who remains in government.

The officials agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity because they discussed intelligence reports that remain classified.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/14364039.htm
via:http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_04_16_atrios_archive.html#114537096253697406

[jaxx]

1. Once again, tell they what they want to hear, or they don't listen.

Nevermind the insurgency keeps escalating. Nevermind all the people killed. Nevermind the boob in the oval office who thinks god is driving the bus for him.