[Max Combined]

Can't plan for everything.

[mtbopfuyn]

the insurgency took U.S. military leaders by surprise because they believed the assurances of Iraqi

Who assured them? Baghdad Bob?

[cripplecreek]

I don't believe we expected the drawn out resistance we got in post WWII Germany either.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I am about halfway through with a great WWII book,
An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943 by Rick Atkinson. Eisenhower, considered to be a great military leader, made literally scores of errors of omission and comission. Bush and his planners pitch a near shutout in a one-month war, and are castigated daily in the press for failing to be omniscient. Where were today's "journalists" when perspective was being handed out? Probably occupying a college building, protesting something or other.

[First_Salute]

To the contrary, planning was bent severly to resolve for political satisfaction within the Bush [still running 39% of the Clinton] Administration, the shortage of troops problem.

Without enough troops, insurgency was deftly removed from the game board, and wishful thinking installed at several locations, in place of such troops.

[megatherium]

I think we also failed to anticipate the breakdown in civil order. Our failure to immediately stop the looting and crime was resented by many Iraqis. Where we have now restored order, where Iraqis can work and go about their lives in relative safety, there is gratitude for what we've accomplished.

[The Bandit]

When it comes to war you plan for all possible contingencies, if you don't or cannot, then you have no business being in the war business.

[InterceptPoint]

the insurgency took U.S. military leaders by surprise because they believed the assurances of Iraqi opposition groups and defectors that American forces would be welcomed.

This is naive beyond belief.

Did the general think that 100% of the people would welcome us? How about 90%? That would leave a couple of million candidate insurgents. This guy has to be a Clinton appointee. The military plans for the unexpected and I simply do not believe that post invasion attacks on the American "occupiers" could have possibly been a surprise to the military leadership when it wasn't a surprise to me.

[nosofar]

I have trouble believing this. Or maybe I just don't want to think out leaders are that stupid.

[Chief_Joe]

Testifying with Keane were two other retired Army officers, Col. Douglas Macgregor... and Maj. Gen. Robert Scales.

Scales advocated spending less money on new weapons and technology and more on educating soldiers in cultural, language and strategic skills

I'm happy he's retired.

[Joe_October]

We didn't know the media was going to call them insurgents. That the press was going to make a big deal out of any set backs, THAT we know. But, other than that it's been stunning success!

[ValerieUSA]

"I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit and to mothball his opinions."
General Omar Bradley

[SunkenCiv]

The mistake was in not leveling Tikrit and killing everyone in it. That would have given them some pause. However, the terrorists who streamed (and still stream) in from the outside are going to bring about a civil war, and when it's over, there will be a good many fewer Sunni Moslems living in the country.