Mistakes were made in Iraq, British foreign secretary says

[CShine]

The US and British occupiers of Iraq made mistakes in the months following the end of major conflict last year, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday.

"With the benefit of hindsight there were decisions that were made - for example in respect of de-Baathification - which might have been done differently," Straw said. "Of course in this transition some mistakes have been made and probably the de-Baathification went too far," Straw told the BBC.

Critics of the occupation say the decision to disband the 400,000-strong Iraqi army and to purge the state of members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party has contributed to chaos and helped fuel insurgency in post-war Iraq. Straw declined to criticise decisions made by Paul Bremer, the former US administrator in Iraq, or Washington officials. But he conceded there had been "a great debate about the precise approach that should be adopted on the ground in Iraq post the major military conflict".

"Yes, of course in such situations some mistakes have been made. But I believe overall the American and the British and all the other allied troops have worked very well," Straw said.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/29/1088487970731.html?oneclick=true

[Jacobin]

1. The mistake was invading and occupying another

country that was no threat.

[LiberalFighter]

5. More important an illegal invasion and occupation

[livinginphotographs]

2. Thank you, Captain Obvious....

n/t

[pagerbear]

3. Ah, the past exonerative verb tense!

[struggle4progress]

4. Straw may be gently pushing the right way.

A global order based on justice
... Military intervention may be necessary as a last resort, but conflict prevention is always preferable. It is at once more humane and less costly ... Nothing justifies terrorism; but far too many people live in the conditions where it can breed, where grinding poverty, tyranny and the widespread neglect of human rights deny people the hope of a better future ...
http://www.iht.com/articles/526088.html

[Cerridwen]

6. I need to scream

I guess they all figure if they skip a generation or two and say it in a new country; no one will make the connection.

See connection below.




"Following Richard Nixon in influence on recent fiction would be two runners-up, Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Their administrations put the passive voice, politically, on the rhetorical map. In their efforts to acquire deniability on the arms-for-hostages deal with Iran, their administrations managed to achieve considerable notoriety for self-righteousness, public befuddlement about facts, forgetfulness under oath, and constant disavowals of political error and criminality, culminating in the quasi-confessional, passive voice–mode sentence, “Mistakes were made.”


Contrast this with Robert E. Lee’s statement after the battle of Gettysburg, the third day and the calamity of Pickett’s Charge: “All this has been my fault,” Lee said. “I asked more of men than should have been asked of them.”"

full text of article is here

[struggle4progress]

7. kick

:kick: