Posted on 05/13/2007 7:14:01 AM PDT by RDTF
Hussein’s military *was* attacking ours pre-war. You recall their shooting at our planes as they were patrolling the no-fly zone, right? That right there is sufficient reason to re-start Bush 1’s war with them.
I am glad Bremer wrote this. All the Bush reactionaries (conservative and liberal) have been repeating this mantra for years.
I still believe that Bremer did a great job. It constantly fascinates me how the willful actions of terrorists are dismissed as scenic outcomes of the “failed administration.” It certainly does not matter the myriad of milestones passed in this successful war. Al Qaeda keeps trying to undermine our success so it is a failure.
The US left armed German Army units in charge of many areas, to keep order. Or so I've heard.
The old Iraqi army was rotten to the core. it was an army of either high ranking Baathist officers, or mid-ranking Sunni school leavers largely from Anbar province. Then there is the special forces which is a euphemism for execution squads who would target all kinds of ‘traitors’. But the largest sorta clean section (some 80% of the army) are the conscripts who come from all over Iraq. When the war started most of the conscripts simply left and went home. Whether the Americans dissolved the army or not, the conscripts simply went home. How is it possible to rely on the old army if you exclude the ‘clean’ conscripts and rely on the indoctrinated and largely criminal ranks of the old army?
People who criticize dissolving the old Iraqi army have no understanding of the situation in Iraq and the nature of the old army.
Well, of course because the Russians would move in. But the question isn’t why—the question is, can it be done? Germany and Japanese cultures were entirely different, with entirely different mindsets both from each other and from Iraq’s. But, I won’t debate it with you—if anyone still thinks that “democracy” can be built from the historical antecedents of that place, then we just disagree too strongly to discuss it or ever have a common ground. Even the President doesn’t think so any more.
That's our biggest mistake in the occupation of Iraq. Now there are hundreds of thousands unemployed Sunni soldiers that are out there attacking Coalition forces.
If we kept the Iraqi Army, we could had used it to pacify Anbar Province while we are building up Shi'ite Police forces in most parts of Iraq.
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