Wolfowitz acknowledges mistakes in Iraq

[Nambe]

(Washington-AP)

The number-two man at the Pentagon admits American officials have done some "stupid things" in Iraq.

Paul Wolfowitz -- just back from five days in the country -- says among them was underestimating the resistance.

He says before the invasion, it was hard to imagine that the "sadists and gangsters" who had run Iraq for 35 years would keep fighting what some call a "guerrilla war."

Wolfowitz says conditions were worse than they expected in two other ways. No Iraqi military units "of significant size" defected to U-S forces, and Iraqi police turned out to need a massive overhaul. ---

Banish bush From Texas Too

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. In other words...

And to paraphrase The Mighty, Mighty J. Geils Band:

"They Got Caught With The Meat In Their Mouth".

[saigon68]

12. CHICKENHAWK WOLFIE

I hope some of the NEW Gold Star Mothers take this motherfucker to task.
What scum, what a waste of lives on both sides.

Let the UN deal with IRAQ no WAY .

Lets create IRAQ-NAM instead for the rich Amerikan corporate interests.

[gratuitous]

2. There, was that so freakin' hard?

Holy smokes, it's like pulling teeth to get this corrupt administration to admit what's so apparent to everyone else in the world.

[tomp]

14. ok, now, and who is ultimately responsible for those mistakes?

c'mon you can say it. which particular u.s. "official".

[are_we_united_yet]

3. Wolf....

Your a Godammned genius!

[IDUDOYOU]

4. Well, duh!!!

I think he is still waiting for the flowers to be thrown at his feet.

[Dover]

5. There's that word again......"mistake". Aw shucks, so sorry about not

listening to intelligence's warnings, using bogus information, bypassing both the U.N. and popular dissent against this war, all those deaths of Iraqi citizens and U.S. soldiers, etc. Etc. ETC.

Wolfowitz: "Oops...me bad. But hey, EVERYONE makes 'mistakes', right?".

[Zero Gravitas]

6. Mistakes were made

like invading Iraq in the first place. Of course none of these scumbags will ever take responibility for their "mistakes".

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Wolfowitz hasn't figured it out yet

When he does, he'll realize that the "sadists and gangsters" who have run Iraq for the last 35 years aren't the only guerrillas that he and the Frat Boy are fighting. Some are simple Iraqi patriots.

When Wolfowitz gets it right, he'll admit that the real big mistake was invading.

[LauraK]

17. If he gets his oil, no mistake.

If he is forced into a UN resolution, he'll lose the oil.

[MoonRiver]

8. Gee, and I thought resident f-head said he "won" the war.

Go figure.

[osaMABUSh]

9. I heard the Shiites say it's been child's play so far

Some Shiite mullas are saying that if they allow for a jihad against the Americans it'll make the post war fighting so far look like child's play. Apparently, those killing GIs now are Saddam loyalists and some ordinary Iraq's that are pissed but there is yet no organized fighting from the millions who listen to their clerics. In fact, the religious leaders are restraining their people, for now.

[robbedvoter]

10. He admits other people mistakes - how GOP of him!

This is like a kindergarten game now - duck, duck goose - the "mistakes " game...

[deutsey]

11. Maybe that "focus group" you and Bush ignored

back before the war started actually knew what it was talking about, huh?

Sigh.

[onehandle]

13. Errors equal Dead American Soldiers....

Dead American Soldiers equal Resignations.

Time for some of these Bush dicks to start walking the plank.

Oops, ain't cutting it.
__________________

Wolfowitz Concedes Iraq Errors

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37468-2003Jul23.html?nav=hptop_tb

[SOS]

15. Sadists and gangsters

for 35 years? Was the US unaware of this at the time of this photo, taken during the Reagan administration:

What does that say about our intelligence capabilities?

As to "mistakes", the British made very similar errors in the 1920's.
From John Kifner at the NYT:

"Things were not going well for the British in Mesopotamia. Bell was arbitrarily drawing lines on the map to make a new country out of three former Ottoman provinces — Mosul in the north, Baghdad in the center and Basra in the south. The districts were composed, respectively, of Kurds, Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims, all of whom hated each other — and the British even more.

By 1920, the country was in full rebellion, from Shiite tribesmen in the south to Kurds in the north. There were some 425 deaths on the British side and an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 among the Iraqis."

[yellowcanine]

16. He was there 5 days

and he confidently says that the morale of the troops is good. Wonder how many troops he actually talked to and how many of those felt free to speak their minds. My guess is that the "death by a thousand cuts" that the troops are enduring now (thanks to Rummy's insistence that he knows best about how many and what kinds of troops are needed - and Wolfie's insistance that the U.S. could "go it alone" in Iraq) is more demoralizing than losing much larger numbers of troops in a set piece battle. The point is that this is precisely the situation that the war critics warned about in the first place and their concerns were written off as lack of sufficient patriotism-or anti-Americanism on the part of the Europeans. What would be nice to hear would be an acknowledgement by the chicken hawks that maybe the war critics (and that includes the French and Germans) had a valid point and maybe some of them should be brought in now to try to figure out how to extricate ourselves from this quagmire.