Columnist Joseph Farah: "How We Blew It in Iraq"

WND.com ^ | 07-11-03 | Farah, Joseph

[Theodore R.]

How we blew it in Iraq

Posted: July 11, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Most of the attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq since "the end of hostilities" have come mainly from remnants of Saddam Hussein's military forces, which have shed their uniforms and faded into the civilian populace.

This would not have happened if the U.S. had properly prepared for the invasion of Iraq by ensuring it had sufficient military police and rear-guard forces to incarcerate Iraqi prisoners – many thousands of whom had to be released rather than held and properly interrogated.

Not only did the U.S. not have enough MPs, it also did not have enough Arabic-language interrogators in Iraq.

Now we are fighting a guerrilla war that may last months or years and claim unknown casualties, in part, because of inadequate planning and preparation for the invasion.

Is this second-guessing?

No, I supported the war from the get-go. And, as early as last fall, reported about these problems when they still could be addressed in plenty of time by U.S. military planners.

I don't let my support for the Iraqi campaign allow me to be blinded to the war's problems. I don't let my view of the war's problems blind me to the rightness of the war's goals and objectives.

According to the latest confirming information obtained by WorldNetDaily, the Pentagon underestimated the number of military police and Arabic-speaking interrogators it would need to occupy Iraq – and, yes, these miscalculations have left U.S. troops more vulnerable to attack.

War planners originally wanted an additional detention facility to hold Iraqi prisoners, but the idea was abandoned because they didn't have enough MPs to support it.

Because they didn't have the manpower to support another detention facility, they simply downgraded the number of prisoners of war they anticipated.

Going into the action, U.S. military officials knew they would not be able to hold all of the Iraqi prisoners they expected to surrender. So, they turned them loose – by the hundreds, by the thousands. Oftentimes these prisoners would not even be interrogated in Arabic before being released.

"The amazing thing is that the decision was made to ignore the problem, as opposed to, say, training a bunch of reserves or infantry guys to perform guard-duty missions at POW compounds," said one candid official.

We will never know how many lives this miscalculation cost. But even the Pentagon admits most of the recent casualties have been the result of attacks by Iraqi soldiers – some of whom undoubtedly were captured and released.

Since May 1, 30 American soldiers have been killed. Another 180 have been wounded.

An even larger concern among planners is the lack of reliable human intelligence on the ground. Some officials now think Saddam Hussein's forces planned all along to offer only limited resistance during the invasion, then count on sustained urban warfare to drive out our occupying forces later.

And that's where we find ourselves today.

It's not too late to salvage this operation. But the Pentagon needs to come clean, admit to mistakes and correct them as quickly as possible.

While the U.S. is actively contemplating more military and peacekeeping missions around the world, there are critical lessons to be learned from the Iraqi operation.

But the first step in learning lessons and applying them to future conflicts is honest assessment of the flaws in previous campaigns.

There are 145,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq. We need to protect them. We need to finish the mission. We need to bring them home when the mission is completed. All of this has been complicated by some poor planning. I take no comfort or pleasure in saying, "I told you so."

[Theodore R.]

Perhaps this article needs a revised headline, but that is the way it is written by WND.com

[Support Free Republic]

A Recall AND a Fundraiser? I'm toast.

Let's get this over with FAST. Please contribute!

[Cyber Liberty]

Must be a Monday morning. I hear quarterbacks tuning up all over the political landscape....

[Normal4me]

Perhaps this story needs sources....Rumsfeld and Franks seem to think there are enough troops there.

[JohnGalt]

This is a fairly weak column from Farah. He uses the phrase 'military planners' when he could have been far more forthright. I assume he means, Rummy, Perle, Wolfowtiz and the Defense Policy Board, but he makes it sound like the Pentagon is responsible for the bad planning.

[Theodore R.]

I think Farah offers a sobering, practical analysis of the troubles now in Iraq. It's HIS headline that is rather misleading.

It seems that we made the mistake with follow-up in Iraq as the McKinley administration made in Manila in 1899. There were more American deaths from guerrilla fighters in the Philippines than there was during the preceding Spanish-American War.

[over3Owithabrain]

Perhaps, but it does seem we were too "civil" about fighting the war. We wanted to show how Muslim-loving we were, so we just let thousands of Iraqi soldiers walk away, assuming they would be ever so grateful to Uncle Sam.
What Bush and Co. need to finally understand and act on is that hatred is the most powerful force in the Islamic world - and that hatred is directed at everyone but themselves. They must be killed, not turned loose with a warning.

[Cyber Liberty]

It's not time to move death into wholesale status. Not sure if it's really swell to move in that direction, either.

[Fee]

In the industrial age, war was too important to be left to the politicians. In the digital age, war is too important to be left to the corporate managers. Rumsfeld is a good Sec of Defense and he is trying to bring the DoD out of industrial age to digital age thinking. He has introduced a lot of good concepts, but he also brought in unworkable corporate concepts. Just in time resources may be good in keeping business costs down, but it does not work for military. Military needs to stockpile for ramp up demands, military needs manpower to occupy and more important fill in the gaps if something goes wrong. Our war in Iraq was successful, but there was very little margin for error. We had three divisions in rapid mobile combat, if one or two brigades got caught in an ambush or massacre (that is 22 percent of your effective forces). Finally, Rumsfeld had the right idea in post war Iraq, let the exile Iraqi leaders form an interim government and police forces quickly. Unfortunately the State Dept convinced GWB to put in this guy name Bremer who want the US to administrate Iraq like post war Germany during WWII. I think we are learning and back tracking from that policy. Romans always controlled their Eastern civilized provinces by proxy to reduce friction between the rulers and population. I hope within 6 months there will be a pro US Iraqi force and interim government. That will let our troops come home away from that hellhole. During the war the morale of these troops went up as they won battles and gained invaluable experience. One way to ruin them is to bog them down in an insurgency type war. Let the pro US Iraqi forces handle the pro Saddam and pro Iranian groups. Just take a 24 hour cigarette break while they clean them out village by village and city block by city block.

[Yo-Yo]

Most of the attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq since "the end of hostilities" have come mainly from remnants of Saddam Hussein's military forces, which have shed their uniforms and faded into the civilian populace.

This would not have happened if the U.S. had properly prepared for the invasion of Iraq by ensuring it had sufficient military police and rear-guard forces to incarcerate Iraqi prisoners – many thousands of whom had to be released rather than held and properly interrogated.

Let's see, most of the Republican Guard simply took off their uniforms, donned civilian clothes, and melted into the population, even before we seized control of Baghdad. So we didn't have enough forces to incarcerate Iraqi prisoners that we never had in the first place?

I don't want to see one more American or coalition life lost, but for every RPG attack on a Humvee there are at least 5 or 6 Iraqis killed, so they will run out of loylalist Ba'athists long before we run out of Humvees.

[Brian S]

It seems "our friends" at the AEI have all taken a holiday as of late...huh?

[Taiwan Bocks]

Where is the coverage of the obvious?!

It's the Iraq military without uniforms that began with looting and now are proceeding.

Geez, why don't they call it what it is?!

Once again it is Farah, and only Farah, for the umpteenth time.

WorldNetDaily serves a lot of needs and Joseph Farah is a true home run king.

[cyncooper]

"the end of hostilities"

Why does Farah place this comment in quotes as if it comes from someone in the administration?

The correct quote is "the end of major combat operations".

Big diff.

Unless one has an agenda.

[Courier]

All our problems are because instead of treating the enemy like the enemy should be treated, when it comes to Arabs we treat them like a protected class.

[Courier]

"he makes it sound like the Pentagon"

That's right. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Pearle do all the planning.

Are you as surprised as me that the Jews let Rumsfeld in? Rumsfeld, sounds like, could be Jewish? Secretly, of course.

All I know as a taxpayer is that if a couple of Jews are doing all the planning, we are paying an awful lot of money to a building full of people doing nothing.

I think you should agree with me that instead of that carrier landing the President did, it should have been Pearle in the seat declaring victory.

Remember the article by your idol Pat a couple of weeks ago that Neo-Cons are no longer being listened to? He's right for once. That is why things are going downhill.

[joesnuffy]

Hearts & Minds
without that all you can do is occupy and take your licks

[TheDon]

Yeah, why waste time talking about how the Demorats are a danger to foreign policy when you can attack the President?! The administration isn't bright enough to figure this stuff out, it's nice to have commentators help.

[Sci Fi Guy]

Unfortunately the State Dept convinced GWB to put in this guy name Bremer who want the US to administrate Iraq like post war Germany during WWII.

Actually I've heard tha Rummy wanted Bremer in that post. Bremer is the pentagon's man at the state dept so to speak.

[bluejean]

"What Bush and Co. need to finally understand and act on is that hatred is the most powerful force in the Islamic world..."

Absolutely. For whatever reason, these folks cannot comprehend what they're up against. It's the same thing with the Palestinians. They think compliments and group hugs will convert these rabid fanatics into U.S. citizen wanna-be's. It's phenomenal blindness or stupidity on the part of the U.S., can't tell which.

We sent our guys over there like so many gun-toting Hallmark cards, expecting nothing but gratitude and praise. Now they're getting picked off one by one, day after day, and what the h*ll are we doing about it?

Maybe if we ask them really really gently to be nice, they'll quit being such meanies.

I