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| Next: bush survives incident in Iraq.... |
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kenmabmcc
Joined: Nov 20, 2003
Posts: 8179
Location: Dunedin, New Zealand.
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 Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 4:40 pm Post subject: Iraq Rebuilding Blunders |
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Miscalculations
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It also concludes that when the reconstruction began to lag — particularly in the critical area of rebuilding the Iraqi police and army — the Pentagon simply put out inflated measures of progress to cover up the failures.
In one passage, for example, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is quoted as saying that in the months after the 2003 invasion, the Defense Department “kept inventing numbers of Iraqi security forces — the number would jump 20,000 a week! ‘We now have 80,000, we now have 100,000, we now have 120,000.’ ”
Mr. Powell’s assertion that the Pentagon inflated the number of competent Iraqi security forces is backed up by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the former commander of ground troops in Iraq, and L. Paul Bremer III, the top civilian administrator until an Iraqi government took over in June 2004. |
So all those "good news" stories from the Pentagon,
were a lot of unmitigated codswallop with a large helping of bull excreta.....
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swordofdestiny
Joined: Sep 25, 2008
Posts: 164
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| Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Ken, welcome to war. It's called propaganda designed to make your enemy think you're bigger than you are. Simple cold truth.
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kenmabmcc
Joined: Nov 20, 2003
Posts: 8179
Location: Dunedin, New Zealand.
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| Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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No,
this propaganda was aimed at the US public,
to make them feel better about an illegal war......
The Pentagon lied to the US public.
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swordofdestiny
Joined: Sep 25, 2008
Posts: 164
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| Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:19 am Post subject: |
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| If it was aimed at the "U.S. Public" which I guess I'm included in it, why am I just now hearing any of these numbers? News casts don't typically say "we have blah Iraqi security forces." They like to focus on the number of soldiers who were KIA this week/month/year. So Ken, would you say that WWII would have been illegal had the Nazi's just killed people of Jewish descent in their own country? That's essentially what Sadam's regime was doing. I know I know, no WMDs, but they had them at one point and they have used them before. Ask Iran about Iraq's VX Poison gas. You do know what VX is right? You wouldn't want to get near that stuff. Ken, it just seems like you hate Bush so much, that if he donated some money to a charity you'd say that he's doing it for oil. I mean seriously, if this war was about oil, wouldn't prices have dropped BEFORE the economy tanked? I still support this war. I know soldiers who still support this war. Also, I'm sure your government is completely honest about everything, Ken. |
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kenmabmcc
Joined: Nov 20, 2003
Posts: 8179
Location: Dunedin, New Zealand.
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| Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:50 am Post subject: |
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Dashed Expectations
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By the time a sovereign Iraqi government took over from the Americans in June 2004, none of those services — with a single exception, mobile phones — had returned to prewar levels.
And by the time of the security improvements in 2007 and 2008, electricity output had, at best, a precarious 10 percent lead on its levels under Saddam Hussein; oil production was still below prewar levels; and access to potable water had increased by about 30 percent, although with Iraq’s ruined piping system it was unclear how much reached people’s homes uncontaminated.
Whether the rebuilding effort could have succeeded in a less violent setting will never be known. In April 2004, thousands of the Iraqi security forces that had been oversold by the Pentagon were overrun, abruptly mutinied or simply abandoned their posts as the insurgency broke out, sending Iraq down a violent path from which it has never completely recovered. |
If this war was merely about Saddam then it has been over for a long time,
but all Iraqi's have paid the price.
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tony7914
Joined: Dec 24, 2004
Posts: 4965
Location: Peru Indiana
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| Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:14 pm Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
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| kenmabmcc wrote: |
Dashed Expectations
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By the time a sovereign Iraqi government took over from the Americans in June 2004, none of those services — with a single exception, mobile phones — had returned to prewar levels.
And by the time of the security improvements in 2007 and 2008, electricity output had, at best, a precarious 10 percent lead on its levels under Saddam Hussein; oil production was still below prewar levels; and access to potable water had increased by about 30 percent, although with Iraq’s ruined piping system it was unclear how much reached people’s homes uncontaminated.
Whether the rebuilding effort could have succeeded in a less violent setting will never be known. In April 2004, thousands of the Iraqi security forces that had been oversold by the Pentagon were overrun, abruptly mutinied or simply abandoned their posts as the insurgency broke out, sending Iraq down a violent path from which it has never completely recovered. |
If this war was merely about Saddam then it has been over for a long time,
but all Iraqi's have paid the price.
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I'd say they got off light So long as the different factions keep letting each others blood this will go on and has been going on long before we got involved.
I think the US made a mistake trying to rebuild Iraq, it should have been left to the UN. |
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swordofdestiny
Joined: Sep 25, 2008
Posts: 164
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| Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:36 pm Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
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| Just to say this, we're still in places we helped to "rebuild" after WWII. |
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CowpokeBob
Joined: Feb 07, 2006
Posts: 1501
Location: South Carolina, USA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:33 pm Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
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| kenmabmcc wrote: |
Dashed Expectations
| Quote: |
By the time a sovereign Iraqi government took over from the Americans in June 2004, none of those services — with a single exception, mobile phones — had returned to prewar levels.
And by the time of the security improvements in 2007 and 2008, electricity output had, at best, a precarious 10 percent lead on its levels under Saddam Hussein; oil production was still below prewar levels; and access to potable water had increased by about 30 percent, although with Iraq’s ruined piping system it was unclear how much reached people’s homes uncontaminated.
Whether the rebuilding effort could have succeeded in a less violent setting will never be known. In April 2004, thousands of the Iraqi security forces that had been oversold by the Pentagon were overrun, abruptly mutinied or simply abandoned their posts as the insurgency broke out, sending Iraq down a violent path from which it has never completely recovered. |
If this war was merely about Saddam then it has been over for a long time,
but all Iraqi's have paid the price.
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If the New York Times are what your basing life in America on then it explains alot ken. The only useful application of the NYT is to line the bottom of bird cages. It is almost blasphemy to call that rag a newspaper. Which is why i'm not gonna wate effort debunking thier trash. As for progress in Iraq I would say we have made loads of progress. Just look at the recent press conference. Before we went into Iraq no reporter would have dared or been able to throw his shoes at a government official and if he had tried would have promptly been shot or decaptiated. And his family as well probably. But this guy is an instant hero. Now I call that progress  |
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