Never Forget: With Bush, Politics Trumps Security
From the NYTimes: "Throughout the 19-month war, the insurgents have demonstrated an uncanny adaptability in the face of vastly superior American firepower. That has not changed with the storming of Falluja. American commanders acknowledge that insurgent leaders fled Falluja in the run-up to the invasion and have likely been organizing the deadly counteroffensive unfolding in cities across the north and around the capital."
The reason that there was a "runup" to the invasion of Fallujah was that the Bush Administration didn't want to invade before the election and risk that mess becoming a campaign issue -- but also felt compelled to state publicly that they *would* invade Fallujah after the election, so that their inaction wouldn't become a campaign issue. These guys always put politics first, and America is much the worse for it.
Sound familiar? It should.
Via Spencer Ackerman, check out what Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway (recently appointed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff) has to say about the laughable attack-and-pull-back, then create-'Fallujah-Brigade' strategy of this past spring:
After taking control of Al Anbar province from the 82nd Airborne, Conway wanted to apply a dual strategy to defeat the insurgents of mixing discrete military operations with an infusion of visible, and lucrative, reconstruction. When four Blackwater contractors were lynched in Falluja at the end of March, Conway wanted to "let the situation settle before we appeared to be attacking out of revenge." Instead, he was ordered to attack the city. During the siege laid by Conway's forces, Falluja quickly became a symbol of resistance to the occupation. Yet while the Marines were preparing to finish the job--planning a full attack on the city that all sides recognized would produce serious civilian casualties--he was suddenly told to pull back. Then he was told to create the Falluja Brigade, a force to control the city led by Saddam-era officers--which, before its ultimate collapse, incorporated the insurgents or had non-sympathetic elements within the brigade purged by them.
"I would simply say that when you order elements of a Marine division to attack a city, that you really need to understand what the consequences are, and not perhaps vacillate in the middle of something like that. ... Once you commit, you've got to stay committed."
[Gen Conway] would not say where the order to attack originated, only that he received an order from his superior at the time, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the overall commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Some senior U.S. officials in Iraq have said the command originated in the White House.
Bush: Politics. Always. Trumps. Security.
The reason that there was a "runup" to the invasion of Fallujah was that the Bush Administration didn't want to invade before the election and risk that mess becoming a campaign issue -- but also felt compelled to state publicly that they *would* invade Fallujah after the election, so that their inaction wouldn't become a campaign issue. These guys always put politics first, and America is much the worse for it.
Sound familiar? It should.
Via Spencer Ackerman, check out what Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway (recently appointed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff) has to say about the laughable attack-and-pull-back, then create-'Fallujah-Brigade' strategy of this past spring:
After taking control of Al Anbar province from the 82nd Airborne, Conway wanted to apply a dual strategy to defeat the insurgents of mixing discrete military operations with an infusion of visible, and lucrative, reconstruction. When four Blackwater contractors were lynched in Falluja at the end of March, Conway wanted to "let the situation settle before we appeared to be attacking out of revenge." Instead, he was ordered to attack the city. During the siege laid by Conway's forces, Falluja quickly became a symbol of resistance to the occupation. Yet while the Marines were preparing to finish the job--planning a full attack on the city that all sides recognized would produce serious civilian casualties--he was suddenly told to pull back. Then he was told to create the Falluja Brigade, a force to control the city led by Saddam-era officers--which, before its ultimate collapse, incorporated the insurgents or had non-sympathetic elements within the brigade purged by them.
"I would simply say that when you order elements of a Marine division to attack a city, that you really need to understand what the consequences are, and not perhaps vacillate in the middle of something like that. ... Once you commit, you've got to stay committed."
[Gen Conway] would not say where the order to attack originated, only that he received an order from his superior at the time, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the overall commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Some senior U.S. officials in Iraq have said the command originated in the White House.
Bush: Politics. Always. Trumps. Security.
posted by Ethan at 2:41 PM
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