Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Thanks George
Last Monday Paul Bremer, the former U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, stated that the troop levels in Iraq were insufficient to do the job.
Of course the White House disagreed and Bremer immediately tried to take back his statement. However, today we found out that Bremer was exactly right.
George Bush continues to claim that he is the candidate to keep us safe. Yet it was his administration that ignored the advice of former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki who said that "several hundred thousand troops" would be necessary to secure a post-war Iraq. An increased troop level may have possibly prevented the widespread looting that led to the disappearance of the nuclear equipment. It was also Bush's administration that ignored the advice of former military leaders like General Anthony Zinni, former General and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Centcom Commander Norman Schwarzkopf, and former NATO Commander Wesley Clark; all of whom expressed doubts about the invasion. At almost every turn, the Bush administration ignored the advice of qualified military personel and rushed unprepared into an unnecessary war.
During the 2000 campaign there was a lot of talk about George W. Bush's intelligence (or lack of). However, we were told that we shouldn't worry because he would surround himself with "good people." Well it's these "good people" that have put us into this mess. People like Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, and others have incompetently led us into a war of choice that is spinning out of control. If these are Bush's "good people," I'd sure hate to see the list of people he rejected for his cabinet.
National Security is one of the prominent issues in this year's election. How can we be expected to trust a person who isn't smart enough to guard the facilities that were supposed to be the main reason for our invasion. If we are really trying to prevent the spread of WMD, I would think that the first thing we would do upon toppling the regime would be to secure the material we don't want the terrorists to obtain. The only way to describe this administration's handling of the situation is Iraq is to call it incompetent. Had any other country perpetrated such an inept invasion of Iraq, they would be the laughing stock of the world. Fortunately for us, our president and our media are too stupid to realize that and have in turn saved us the shame of knowing how the rest of the world is mocking us.
I guess we can thank George for that.
- The former U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq says the United States "paid a big price" for not having enough troops on the ground after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime.
L. Paul Bremer, speaking Monday at an insurance conference in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, said "horrid" looting was occurring when he arrived to head the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad on May 6, 2003.
"We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," Bremer said. "We never had enough troops on the ground."
Of course the White House disagreed and Bremer immediately tried to take back his statement. However, today we found out that Bremer was exactly right.
- The senior adviser to Iraq's Interior Ministry blamed U.S. forces Tuesday for not securing facilities where the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency says equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons has vanished.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, playing down the International Atomic Energy Agency's concerns, said U.S.-led coalition forces "did move quickly" to secure the so-called dual-use equipment after invading Iraq in March 2003.
"I think we share the general concern that some material might have gotten out [during the mass looting that took place] immediately after the war, but it has been brought under control," Boucher told reporters in Washington.
George Bush continues to claim that he is the candidate to keep us safe. Yet it was his administration that ignored the advice of former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki who said that "several hundred thousand troops" would be necessary to secure a post-war Iraq. An increased troop level may have possibly prevented the widespread looting that led to the disappearance of the nuclear equipment. It was also Bush's administration that ignored the advice of former military leaders like General Anthony Zinni, former General and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Centcom Commander Norman Schwarzkopf, and former NATO Commander Wesley Clark; all of whom expressed doubts about the invasion. At almost every turn, the Bush administration ignored the advice of qualified military personel and rushed unprepared into an unnecessary war.
During the 2000 campaign there was a lot of talk about George W. Bush's intelligence (or lack of). However, we were told that we shouldn't worry because he would surround himself with "good people." Well it's these "good people" that have put us into this mess. People like Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, and others have incompetently led us into a war of choice that is spinning out of control. If these are Bush's "good people," I'd sure hate to see the list of people he rejected for his cabinet.
National Security is one of the prominent issues in this year's election. How can we be expected to trust a person who isn't smart enough to guard the facilities that were supposed to be the main reason for our invasion. If we are really trying to prevent the spread of WMD, I would think that the first thing we would do upon toppling the regime would be to secure the material we don't want the terrorists to obtain. The only way to describe this administration's handling of the situation is Iraq is to call it incompetent. Had any other country perpetrated such an inept invasion of Iraq, they would be the laughing stock of the world. Fortunately for us, our president and our media are too stupid to realize that and have in turn saved us the shame of knowing how the rest of the world is mocking us.
I guess we can thank George for that.
