Disregarded Iraq Warnings Appear Prescient

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - The warnings came not from anti-war Democrats, but from Republicans who were backing their president: Planning for a postwar Iraq (news - web sites) was inadequate, they said. More U.S. troops would be needed. The United Nations (news - web sites) should have a larger role.

In each case, the warning wasn't heeded. And in each case, critics now say it appears to have been on target.


Some senators say U.S. efforts in Iraq might be better off today if the Bush administration had worked more closely with Congress. They are encouraging the administration to keep that in mind as it makes plans for handing over control of Iraq on June 30.


Postwar planning was inadequate "and I'm hopeful that's not being repeated," said Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.


In February and March 2003, Lugar and Sen. Joseph Biden, the panel's top Democrat, warned that the administration had not given enough consideration to what would happen in Iraq after the fighting ended.

~snip~

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=10&u=/ap/us_iraq_friendly_advice

[Ready4Change]

1. Prescient?

Anyone with a brain in their skull could have made that warning. "I" made that warning, and I'm no Einstein.

The way this administration dove into Iraq demonstrates they are either arrogant fools or they WANTED this quagmire.

Making me wonder if the lesson they learned from Bush 41 and GWI was that they allowed it to end too soon?

[Earth_First]

2. Millions worldwide knew this...

With no fancy foreign policy or international relations degrees

[central scrutinizer]

12. yeah, but we were dismissed

as a focus group.

[shrike]

14. Yeah, I know

I've said for a long time that everyone on DU must be a psychic or a genius. We state the obvious, then six months later the talking heads and mucky-mucks say what we've been saying all along.

[LizW]

3. Why do "post-war" planning

when there is never going to be a "post-war" period? The war is intended to go on and on. That was the plan from the start. When the Iraqis are ultimately killed or beaten down until they stop resisting, Bushco and the neocons will move on to the next nation.

Bush* told us plainly, "We're changing the world." The plan was to put in place an endless war machine, moving over the face of the Earth at will, consuming human lives and resources and transferring wealth to the militarist corporations at an awesome rate.

[underpants]

4. Or read the State Dept.'s post war plan

You are right in their minds there is no "post-war" it is continuous.

[revcarol]

5. Biden clueless AGAIN.

"what would happen in Iraq after the fighting ended."
Does 127 U. S. dead this month tell you the fighting has ended?

SHEESH and he's a Democrat?

[underpants]

6. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the carrier photo-op

and No he didn't actually say "Mission Accomplished" which personally is more frightening than if he did-they were THAT tricky.

[The Stranger]

7. Post-war Iraq and the country's destruction has gone exactly as PNAC

planned.

[54anickel]

8. Shrub concession speech

And now the end is near
So I face the final curtain
My chumps, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case of which I'm certain

I've lived a life that's full
I've cordoned each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

Mistakes, I've made a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I chose to do
And saw it through without exception

Why plan each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
No, and more, much more than this
I did it my way

Yes, there were times, though you never knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I spun it all and I stood tall
And did it my way

[fishnfla]

9. According to Woodward's book, they knew

dumbsfeld prepared a memo of possible "problems that could result from a conflict with Iraq" It went to 29 items. Of the 8 he lists in the book, 6 have come to pass.

[sniffa]

10. bush is the smart

you peopLe and congress and the u.n. and the worLd don't know what you're taLking about. bush knows what he's doing. he is the smart.

[wabeewoman]

11. bush is directly responsible

for the 10 dead soldiers killed today. If he had listened and planned better they would be home. Then the same can be said for all the dead but this must be particularly hard on these families. They should have been sent home.

"The 1st Armored soldiers killed were to have returned to their home base in Germany by now, under their original deployment orders. The division's departure was blocked by the Pentagon and the unit was ordered to remain in Iraq for 90 days, after this month's surge in violence. Soldiers who had already returned to Germany were ordered back to Iraq."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/iraq/main541815.shtml (from another DU thread)

[enki23]

13. "came not from anti-war democrats..."???

fucking bullshit. they came PRIMARILY from anti-war, democrats and otherwise. a few republicans threw in a meek "well, i think we should do it a little differently..." and suddenly they're "prescient."

it's not about "planning." there's no evidence that "planning" would have changed this situation. the entire operation has been a disaster. exactly as many of us "anti-war" types predicted from the very beginning.

give me a fucking break.