Iraq | Uncensored2008 | Partisan Predictions Posting as Fact

[Procrustes Stretched]

Bringing popular Democracy to Iraq and dissolving the Iraqi Army was an evil whose depth was unimagined

{Something that looks an awful lot like democracy is beginning to take hold in Iraq. It may not be 'mission accomplished'—but it's a start.

"Iraqi democracy will succeed," President George W. Bush declared in November 2003, "and that success will send forth the news from Damascus to Tehran that freedom can be the future of every nation." The audience at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington answered with hearty applause. Bush went on: "The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution."}

A Democratic Iraq Is Emerging - Newsweek


Well gawddamn - looks like Bush was 100% right.

Uncensored2008

"Well gawddamn - looks like Bush was 100% right." - really?

some things need to be looked at from afar...

poor Uncensored ::

NARRATOR: One of the first to raise concerns about Maliki was national security advisor Stephen Hadley.

STEPHEN HADLEY: There was a sectarian agenda that was being carried out on the ground.

[PBS Public Broadcasting Service NY Times transcription]

NARRATOR: The previous fall, Hadley had authored a memo warning that Maliki’s government was becoming increasingly sectarian. Reports of nondelivery of services to Sunni areas, removal of Iraq’s most effective commanders on a sectarian basis and efforts to ensure Shia majorities in all ministries, all suggest a campaign to consolidate Shia power in Baghdad.

STEPHEN HADLEY: And I tried to frame the issue for the president, knowing that this was a judgment that the president was going to have to make himself.

NARRATOR: And now, over a secure videoconference, both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker gave up on the president’s man.

RYAN CROCKER: There was a moment when Dave Petraeus and I, because we were in the smoke and the dust every single damn day, had had it with Maliki. We said, “Boss, we got to have a change here.’

NARRATOR: But Bush had taken a liking to Maliki. He insisted he would not turn his back on the prime minister.

PETER BAKER: Bush really believes in his gut instinct towards other leaders. He really believes that international affairs is driven at least partly by how heads of state get along and whether they can trust each other. And he thinks he’s gotten a read on Maliki at this point.​

Transcript Losing Iraq FRONTLINE PBS

 

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Dante supported the invasion (for reasons other than WMD -- basically some Neocon views) because he believed the Pentagon and the WH were as informed and reliably competent as under GHW Bush.

watching the video again

Losing Iraq FRONTLINE PBS

Better here than a continuation of Uncentaur's thread and the link above has neither Bush nor Obama coming out smelling pretty on Iraq, so where does that leave us on who and why we 'lost' Iraq?

Gen. JACK KEANE, Army Vice Chief of Staff, 1999-03: In ‘03, from a military perspective, from the time we took the regime down, we never made a commitment to secure the population. And we never had enough resources to do it.

Bringing popular Democracy to Iraq and dissolving the Iraqi Army was an evil whose depth was unimagined

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Dante blamed Bremer too much in the past. Iraq had fallen into a shithole before his arrival after a 2 week crash course on are politics and all... the initial issues were the fault of Bush and a man I highly admired - Don Rumsfeld

but Bremer's plan to change the power structure and deBaathify the nation and get Sunni's out -- oy vey!

---------------- I HAVE MY ORDERS ---- my blaming of Bremer was based on this type of shit -----

THOMAS RICKS: And Bremer kind of says, “Look, you don’t understand. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you this is what I’m going to do. I’m not asking for your advice.” And they argue a bit more. And finally, Bremer says, “Look, I have my orders. This is what I’m doing.”

 

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Cowards -- Friggin Civilian Cowards

NARRATOR: It was time to go home.

L. PAUL BREMER: The intelligence was suggesting that the terrorists and the insurgents were planning a major series of attacks on June 30th to embarrass us, make it look as if we were being chased out of Iraq, not that we were leaving on our own.

NARRATOR: They were worried about surface-to-air missiles.

L. PAUL BREMER: So we had to devise a way to get out that didn’t involve a C-130. And we had to keep, of course, all of it secret.

NARRATOR: For the cameras, Bremer appeared to leave on this airplane.

L. PAUL BREMER: And we pulled up the stairs and we just sat in the C-130. We sat there for about 15 minutes while the press and everybody went away. And then we went off, out over the cargo that was in the C-130, in the back, and flew on a helicopter to another part of the airport. And instead of going out on a C-130, we went out on a government plane, a smaller government plane to Jordan, safely.

BARBARA BODINE, Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance: It says a lot about the security in the country by the time we did turn over sovereignty that that is the way that we had to leave.

RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN: It was sort of an ignominious departure. It was yet another metaphor.

NARRATOR: Bremer left behind the new governing council, 140,000 American troops, and a war that really had just begun.

NEWSCASTER: —yet another spasm of violence in Iraq—

NEWSCASTER: Chaos returned with a vengeance—

NEWSCASTER: —14 young men abducted, tortured—

NEWSCASTER: It is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war.

NEWSCASTER: The insurgents have stepped up their attacks since an interim Iraqi government—

NEWSCASTER: Innocent victims of the car bombs—

NARRATOR: The summer of 2004 was the height of the political season. The president was running for reelection. The insurgency was still raging. The last thing the White House wanted was any more bad news from Iraq.​