War College aide rips Bush Iraq strategy

[salin]

War College aide rips Bush Iraq strategy

Tuesday, April 13, 2004
BY DAVID WOOD
Of Our Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - In a broadside fired at the conduct of the war in Iraq, a senior Army strategist has accused the Bush administration of seeking to win "quickly and on the cheap" while ignoring the more critical strategic aim of creating a stable, democratic nation.

While the United States easily won the initial battles that toppled Saddam Hussein a year ago, the administration "either misunderstood or, worse, wished away" the difficulties of transforming that victory into the larger political goal, Army Lt. Col. Antulio J. Echevarria of the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks writes in a new paper.

President Bush and other senior officials have consistently cited this larger context for intervening in Iraq: establishing democracy there as a foothold to transform the Middle East and win the global war on terrorism.

Yet the Pentagon's civilian leadership, centered in the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, focused "on achieving rapid military victories" with a force "equipped only to win battles, not wars," Echevarria, director of national security studies at the War College's Strategic Studies Institute, writes in the paper published in March.

more: http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1081861423145610.xml

[xchrom]

1. glad to hear it

wish you'd spoken out earlier -- like before the war.
i see abizaid has joined kimmitt critisizing arab media for showing what really happens in a war.
i for one would like to point to both of them that -- let's take for example the community of democratic underground, doesn't believe -- those civilians went to disneyland.
both of seem to think that in the context of the absense of wmd's that americans should be non-challant about civilian losses.
it's war right, and people get killed in war, right?
those people messers abizaid and kimmitt were killed for a damn lie some of us ar not fooled -- those people died for nothing -- not liberation, not wmd's not any reason you can ever give to the press. they died -- in the thousands -- for nothing.

[BrotherBuzz]

2. I think the War College did speak out against it

and I think Bush* et al managed to drive a lot of military out of the service that could think outside the box. I hope Lt. Col. Antulio J. Echevarria watches his six.