On the bright side, nobody can credibly calim Iraq was the Democrat's fault
Another one of those rarely told stories about the failure in Iraq.
When historians write of the disaster that was (still is in 2020?) the US presence in Iraq, this portion will probably get small mention against some of the major errors by the "name" participants and the longer term regional instabilities that resulted, but this was a big part of the failure.
All of this crap under Bremer wasted time. Time that was unrecoverable as the various factions organized and began their military resistance.
(This is a long article, but it has lots in it.)
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.
To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.
When historians write of the disaster that was (still is in 2020?) the US presence in Iraq, this portion will probably get small mention against some of the major errors by the "name" participants and the longer term regional instabilities that resulted, but this was a big part of the failure.
All of this crap under Bremer wasted time. Time that was unrecoverable as the various factions organized and began their military resistance.
"I watched résumés of immensely talented individuals who had sought out CPA to help the country thrown in the trash because their adherence to 'the President's vision for Iraq' (a frequently heard phrase at CPA) was 'uncertain.'
(This is a long article, but it has lots in it.)
posted by mikevotes at
2:48 PM
2 Comments:
You know, if this were the old days, I'd say the history books would be written honestly and the Bushies would go down in the annals as the most corrupt, incompetent, arrogant, stupid fucks to ever run the country (and that's including Harding, Buchanan and Grant.) But the same ideologues and Heritage Foundation interns who worked on getting the flat tax to Iraq will write the history books and direct the docudramas that wind up on The History Channel and in schools and the villians for this lost war will be the "cut-and-run" Dems who undercut the war effort, emboldened the enemy and demoralized the homefront by not going along 1000% with this war-time preznit and his plan for victory.
And I bet lots of people, even ones who were here watching all this and are currently telling pollsters they think the war was a mistake, will believe the wingnut version of history.
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 9:54 PM
At least in the short term, I agree. It's like the intentional Reagan movement. (Remember those nutballs who wanted him on Rushmore.)
Two counterpoints. 1) There will be no victory. (although a pretty good job has been done painting Vietnam as a war lost by the antiwr folks.)
2) I unfortunately believe that the middle east is going to pass through a series of anti-US revolutions which will make that great president argument difficult.
IF the catastrophe is restrained to Iraq, I think it will represent pretty good presidenting by the next guy.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 10:17 PM
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