No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

US failed to plan for Post-War Iraq

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram carries the report from Knight-Ridder news service that the failures in Post-War Iraq are a direct result of lack of planning.

Essentially, the Neocons in the Rumsfield had their rosy scenario [Iraqis welcome US GI's with flowers and kisses - US installs Chalabi as Iraqi Leader - all is hunky-dory.] but none of it happened. Since the State Department and the CIA had both predicted that the rosy scenario would not work, the Pentagon guys simply cut them out of the process and went forward with no real plan. The insistence by State and the CIA that we would need a lot more troops than Rumsfield accepted and they would have to be there a lot longer than Rumsfield expected also led the Pentagon civilians to cut the CIA and State out of effective planning.

As a result - no plan has led to no civilian infrastructure in Iraq for way too long, leading to general unhappiness at the American incompetence and the ability of old Baathists to begin efforts to fight a guerrilla war against our troops.

If ever there was a clear demonstration of what the Pentagon civilian leadership and the National Security Advisor should do in contrast to what the military people themselves do, it is this situation. In the conduct of the war itself, the military has performed superbly. In every instance that is the responsibility of the civilian leadership, Iraq has been an utter failure.

The Bush administration is a totally failed Presidency. There is no other American President who has failed so miserably.
posted by Richard at 10:52 AM