Pentagon Institute Calls Iraq War ‘a Major Debacle’ with Outcome ‘in Doubt’
WASHINGTON - The war in Iraq has become “a major debacle” and the outcome “is in doubt” despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon’s premier military educational institute.
The report released by the National Defense University raises fresh doubts about President Bush’s projections of a U.S. victory in Iraq just a week after Bush announced that he was suspending U.S. troop reductions.
The report carries considerable weight because it was written by Joseph Collins, a former senior Pentagon official, and was based in part on interviews with other former senior defense and intelligence officials who played roles in prewar preparations.
It was published by the university’s National Institute for Strategic Studies, a Defense Department research center.
“Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle,” says the report’s opening line.
At the time the report was written last fall, more than 4,000 U.S. and foreign troops, more than 7,500 Iraqi security forces and as many as 82,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed and tens of thousands of others wounded, while the cost of the war since March 2003 was estimated at $450 billion.
“No one as yet has calculated the costs of long-term veterans’ benefits or the total impact on service personnel and materiel,” wrote Collins, who was involved in planning post-invasion humanitarian operations.
The report said that the United States has suffered serious political costs, with its standing in the world seriously diminished. Moreover, operations in Iraq have diverted “manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers” from “all other efforts in the war on terror” and severely strained the U.S. armed forces.
“Compounding all of these problems, our efforts there (in Iraq) were designed to enhance U.S. national security, but they have become, at least temporarily, an incubator for terrorism and have emboldened Iran to expand its influence throughout the Middle East,” the report continued.
The addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to Iraq last year to halt the country’s descent into all-out civil war has improved security, but not enough to ensure that the country emerges as a stable democracy at peace with its neighbors, the report said.
“Despite impressive progress in security, the outcome of the war is in doubt,” said the report. “Strong majorities of both Iraqis and Americans favor some sort of U.S. withdrawal. Intelligence analysts, however, remind us that the only thing worse than an Iraq with an American army may be an Iraq after a rapid withdrawal of that army.”
“For many analysts (including this one), Iraq remains a ‘must win,’ but for many others, despite obvious progress under General David Petraeus and the surge, it now looks like a ‘can’t win.’”
The report lays much of the blame for what went wrong in Iraq after the initial U.S. victory at the feet of then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. It says that in November 2001, before the war in Afghanistan was over, President Bush asked Rumsfeld “to begin planning in secret for potential military operations against Iraq.”
Rumsfeld, who was closely allied with Vice President Dick Cheney, bypassed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the report says, and became “the direct supervisor of the combatant commanders.”
” … the aggressive, hands-on Rumsfeld,” it continues, “cajoled and pushed his way toward a small force and a lightning fast operation.” Later, he shut down the military’s computerized deployment system, “questioning, delaying or deleting units on the numerous deployment orders that came across his desk.”
In part because “long, costly, manpower-intensive post-combat operations were anathema to Rumsfeld,” the report says, the U.S. was unprepared to fight what Collins calls “War B,” the battle against insurgents and sectarian violence that began in mid-2003, shortly after “War A,” the fight against Saddam Hussein’s forces, ended.
Compounding the problem was a series of faulty assumptions made by Bush’s top aides, among them an expectation fed by Iraqi exiles that Iraqis would be grateful to America for liberating them from Saddam’s dictatorship. The administration also expected that “Iraq without Saddam could manage and fund its own reconstruction.”
The report also singles out the Bush administration’s national security apparatus and implicitly President Bush and both of his national security advisers, Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley, saying that “senior national security officials exhibited in many instances an imperious attitude, exerting power and pressure where diplomacy and bargaining might have had a better effect.”
Collins ends his report by quoting Winston Churchill, who said: “Let us learn our lessons. Never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. … Always remember, however sure you are that you can easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think that he also had a chance.”
© 2008 McClatchy Newspapers
Who are these idiot, research, people for strategic studies? Several million people tried to tell them this before shock and awe! All of the sudden they got smart——PLEASE.
Headline news “Pentagon Institute Embraces Reality!”
When have Bush’s projections about the war been anywhere near accurate?
FEW…..FEW had the courage to speak when it counted. the spineless dems could have solicited ritter or zinni or some other “credible” skeptic, but they chose to be timid and allow the whipping given by the radical right hate mongers.
where are our leaders? (read iaccoca on this)
all this after-the-fact crap is just more bush apologists rewriting history……….
a coup took place and no one is doing anything about it………still
Isn’t the truth a little late?
Just a quick note:
A homeless man in New York has found TWO COMPLETE SETS of structural blueprints for the new ‘Freedom Tower’ being built on ground Zero. They include data on the thickness of concrete and all structural materials to be used.
Now you folks remember Ground Zero don’t you? Remember?
Where Bush made his proclamation that he would take the war to the ‘terrorists’? How he said he would hunt them down no matter what?
And how it led to the multiple lies, and an unending war, and millions of innocent Iraqi lives that have since slid down the collective memory hole of the American populace?
Now it turns out that all the information you need to carry out another ‘9/11′ style trojan horse attack can be found in a dumpster on a New York city street.
The blueprints, by the way, are now in the hands of the New York Post, where the homeless man turned them in.
Maybe the Pentagon Institute should commission a study of war for the last several thousand years or so. They could publish a paper verifying what is all too evident: war is futile, continues a cycle of violence, vindictiveness, adolescent schoolyard behavior, etc. Then we could get on with the business of establishing a policy of peaceful resolution to conflict.
Certainly the most disheartening aspect of this report is that its author still considers Iraq a “must win” situation, despite the scathing professional analysis of what is going on from a military and political perspective.
Collins should be asked to give an answer to the same question Petraeus was asked during his recent Congressional testimony: please define “win” for us, as you are using the term.
Bill from Saginaw
The big question remains, can the small but powerful cabel of imperialistic war mongering fascists (neocons and others) who duped the U.S. into this war be so fully dicredited that they will never rise again?
I beleive it is a valid and urgent question that the U.S. needs to address because no presidential candidate or the mainstream press and Fox News has ever acknowleged, that such an evil force exists in America.
Germany after WWII did so, can the U.S.?
C’mon Galen, blueprints for a building aren’t exactly top secret stuff.
Every contractor on the job will have a set, and figuring out the important structural elements of a building is not even a little difficult for someone with a little knowledge. Anyone who can figure out the blueprints, doesn’t need them to figure out what is holding the building up. Thickness of the concrete? This is a non-story masquerading as one.
“No one as yet has calculated the costs of long-term veterans’ benefits or the total impact on service personnel and materiel,” wrote Collins.
This has been done - the true cost is in the Trillions - not even considering the Deaths of a Million or more Iraqis, the ruination of that country, and the ‘blowback’ yet to come.
Welcome to
The Great War On Civilisation
or
the Rise and Fall of the Religious Reich
Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Does the report offer any suggestions on how to stop the pain?
Many important people in our defense and intelligence communities, as well as other elements of American society, are stepping up and calling it like it is on the Bush-Cheney bunch.
The terrible consequences of the invasion of Iraq and related “war on terror” activities are not over by a long shot — for the victims and perpetrators as well as those observing the situation.
Food for thought in the article …
“Going in Circles: Vietnam, Iraq, Calls for Impeachment”
Truthout.org
16 January 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607D.shtml
The article author’s blog is:
http://jointreconstudygroup.blogspot.com/
The report’s author Collins excludes the truth.
“No one as yet has calculated the costs of long-term veterans’ benefits or the total impact on service personnel and materiel,” wrote Collins, who was involved in planning post-invasion humanitarian operations.”
How about Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph Stiglitz & Linda Bilmes book, ” The Three Trillion Dollar War”? They had done analysis prior to the book at least a year ago that got pulic discussion.
As far as the debacle, well, DUH!
Galen April 18th, 2008 11:21 am
“A homeless man in New York has found TWO COMPLETE SETS of structural blueprints for the new ‘Freedom Tower’ being built on ground Zero. They include data on the thickness of concrete and all structural materials to be used.”
Galen,
Do they include a date when they were drawn?
In the news today, 1 in 5 Iraqi vets suffer PTSD, and the same number suffer traumatic brain injury.
Is it worth it?
So when do the war crime trials start? When does the impeachment begin? They wont because we live in a failed state. “America” is just an illusion.
Bully Amerikka is so obsessed with projecting moral certitude that the pain signals from self-inflicted wounds never reach the brain. While the Amerikkkan goons occupy themselves with strutting and chest beating, the rest of the world figures out how to eat their lunch and watch the show. It’s a fascinating spectacle. Behavior doesn’t change until there is too much pain to continue doing the wrong thing. In this case, it’s not hard to imagine the empire dies and goes to hell before the alarm bell ever really goes off.
The outcome was never in doubt, long before the first day of shock and awe. Once this war was started, Congress and the average ignorant and arrogant patriotic American would support it long enough to get to the point of no return and hence be using our troops as a protective umbrella for the corporate war profiteers. Period.
Now what we need is a complete record of the profits made by the various well connected war profiteers, as well as projected profits yet to be made in Iraq, and what those future “earnings” will cost us in money and blood.
five supreme court justices facilitated the corporate coup in 2000. they too should be impeached or removed. this is an illegimate war waged by an illegimate administration……..and no one does a thing.
what has happened to the constitution is criminal. this no longer is what our founders intended.
Soon when robots govern, there will be no more conservative chickenhawk, profiteering and religious superstition wars. As Spock used to say, it wouldn’t be logical.
The addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to Iraq last year to halt the country’s descent into all-out civil war has improved security,
Quote !
This is all bullshit ! Security in Iraq has not improved at all, if the truth be told, it has worsened ! It may have improved because the Americans like Cowboy movies, the cavalry is always holed up in the green Zone; while the poor Iraqis die by the hundreds by suicide bombers.
If you do not fight you do not get killed ! That is American strategy !
This war has been impossible to win from the start, and of course it has never been a “just” war (whatever that means). But aside from the brutalities of it and the stupidities of our so-called aims (and the real reason, OIL) it was always impossible to win in any sense that that word means. Even if it had been a “just” war, we misread the situation there completely from the day it was planned.
Iraq (and other Islamic nations) are organized tribally/religiously, with governing heirarchies that function top-down - a vertical organization. The tribal leaders (sheiks and imams) give the orders, the orders flow down through the tribes, and all in that tribe obey. Thus, a vertical heirarchical organization.
We claim to want to set up a democracy there (not true in the first place), but even if we really did, it wouldn’t work. Democracy is organized horizontally, and works only because various factions reach out laterally and horizontally to solve common problems. So we have tried to impose a horizontal structure on a vertical structure in a system where the various factions (tribal leaders) hate each other to start with.
I have over-simplified, but basically, that’s it. So it is no surprise to see the tribes falling back into their ancient hatreds of each other.
I posted this idea months ago on CD and got flamed and called a “troll” - but thought I’d post it again anyway because the more I’ve seen of this war the more I realize how hopeless it would be even if our stated aims were realistic.
When my family were first discussing this great misadventure, I stated the following to them, “This is as big a strategic error as Hitler going into Stalingrad.” The shocked silence and hard stares from the Republicans in the family were most uncomfortable. Now, good manners & sadness prevents me from saying, “I told you so.” This should not apply in the public arena where the war mongers such as Bill O’Reilly need to be needled at every opportunity.
> Who are these idiot, research, people for strategic studies? Several million people tried to tell
> them this before shock and awe! All of the sudden they got smart——PLEASE.
Before the war, I downloaded a pdf from a war college which outlined what reconstruction would mean, x major areas broken into y subareas, etc. It’s not that war colleges have no idea what reconstruction might mean. Or that strategic study folk needed lessons on strategy. General Shinseki didn’t need to read CommonDreams to figure out he needed more troops.
It’s the Bush administration that made all that irrelevant. Rumsfeld took reconstruction away from Powell and State. The DoD blithely ignored the work the State Department did. DoD didn’t need no steenkin plans, they had Chalabi.
> The administration also expected that “Iraq without Saddam could manage and
> fund its own reconstruction.”
Still does. And what unemployed Iraqi would not be happy that his country is paying the US to pay a US contractor to pay a foreign subcontractor to pay some foreign laborers to do shoddy work that they won’t have to stick around and take responsibility for? What with all the corruption, you could pour billions in one end and not get a single pothole filled at the other end.
Getting a single pothole filled becomes a major achievement, getting two filled becomes proof that reconstruction is on the rise (a 100% improvement over one pothole filled). And if we can get the Iraqis to pay for it then we can claim the credit and not spend the money. It’s wonderful for us. Not so good for unemployed Iraqis but really, who cares?
How are one hundred thirty thousand American troops going to win a war against one billion people in the Middle East when ninety percent of them hate Americans? It’s pure hubris led by a privileged undereducated President who stole two elections. Now eighty percent of the American People oppose the direction the country is going and yet, John McCain, another neo-con, is running even with Obama and Clinton in the polls The discontinuities are staggering. We may be witnessing the institutionalization of the concept of WTF.
grandma is right. This was foreseen by anyone with half a brain. But ‘democracy’ in the US sense means tyranny - despotism - and that’s what they’ve been trying to install.
I find it hard to be sympathetic with Arabs who are so stupid that they’d rather kill each other than throw out the damned occupiers - they could all be rich, with all that oil, if only they weren’t as stupid as Americans - but that’s what you get with religious nuts - stubborn stupidity. Their god will save them all - yeah, right. When pigs fly. Hard to sympathize with any of these idiots. The smart people emigrate - like my granfather’s family did when things got bad in Russia - there is no hope when the fools run the military and the government.
This Joesph Collins guy must be some sort of L-L-L-Liberal, eh Sean? What’s the dirt on him Rush? We’ll teach him! Criticize the war!
Fox Headline: Collins reports impressive increase in Iraq security!
Everyone knows this little crusade was the right thing to do, even if WMD was pure bull, the surge is working, the Iraqi’s love us, and gas costs $1.50/gallon!
Hey Grandma: There is a scene in “Lawrence of Arabia” where Lawrence’s guide is shot simply because he took water from another tribe’s well. Shot first, no questions asked at all. Maybe things haven’t changed a lot in almost 100 years. You’re no troll, hon.
how many times do i have to say…..this WAR was NEVER MEANT TO BE WON !!! in the military sense….that is why there is no plan for VICTORY….the bush administration does not care about stability…..only VIOLENCE AND CHAOS !
IMPEACH!!!
All roads lead to Israel. This is a was of aggression by Israel on Islam with us doing their dirty work. We will never learn. This war will end when the soldiers checks won’t clear. The host is almost dead but the parasite doesn’t care.
The military machine thrives on violence and chaos - that’s for sure. That’s why we have to end military rule. It is the ONLY ISSUE. There can be no others until fascism is defeated. The MIC is the problem - nothing else really matters because there isn’t any tax money for anything else until these beasts are caged. No military will ever end a war if it is making a profit - that’s what fascism is all about. Read Eisenhower.
Stupid Americans!
I hear this more and more when talking with foreigners. What amazes me the most is that the American administration wants it to look like this.
“Um, ugh, we underestimated or overestimated, and ugh, did not realize the complexity of the situation”.
But little do most of us all realize is that it is going exactly as planned. Destabilization of the region, destruction of the culture, chaos and mayhem that requires a military presence for as long as their is oil to be stolen. This is clearly a diversion, scripted reality TV on a much larger scale.
Consider the alternative, American occupation and control of Iraq and Iraqi resources with decisive planning and accountability. Yeah right! Then you leave a trail of evidence that proves your underlying intentions to be scrutinized, condemned and even prosecuted. Chaos provides cover for covert activity.
The Iraqi military is doing exactly what our American administration wants them to do. Our administration picks and chooses who gets to be an Iraqi soldier..
When you sit down to play a game of cards and you can’t quite figure out who the patsy is - you are the patsy.
George Bush is the perfect patsy for a war we now call a debacle. It all makes too much sense.
War crimes trials for all round soon please.
Have these guys been living in a cave somewhere? Are they just now figuring this stuff out? Well anyway, welcome to the party. I would dispute many of their facts and figures, but I have to make allowances for them, since they seem to have just woke up from a deep sleep.
The war has been against us, the US citizen, and we have been getting our butts kicked. The best thing we can do is to stop the hemorrhaging as soon as possible. It might take decades, if ever to get back to where we were when Bush first took office. If we can forever throw these sick monsters off our back, that in itself would ameliorate some of the pain.
Wilhelm: “When have Bush’s projections about the war been anywhere near accurate?”
May 1, 2003, with bulging crouch in your face - “Mission Accomplished” - oil now $100+/barrel.
Anymore questions?
DUH! Bush & company have never been wright about anything, a bunch of liers & retards. Impeachment & war crime trials all around please. our legislative branch just don’t get it,or bush & company would be out,and or imprisioned. hopefully we vote them all out,and start anew.
The problem with the Iraqi debacle going ‘exactly as planned’ is that we are killing the Goose that lays those Golden Eggs - the global economy. Already most literate financial people know the world is headed for doom - they just don’t know how bad it will be this time or how many decades it will last. Stupid is as stupid does. Any good conservative will tell you that you make more money from a prosperous market than from an impoverished looted one - but those guys are all hiding right now from the vicious fascists thugs who took over this country in an obvious coup. Will Americans ever learn? I doubt it.
The truth is that the United States currently is a very sick society–sick mentally, sick economically, really sick and dysfunctional in all respects. We no longer have anything to offer the rest of the world, and in fact if you look carefully and step outside the Great North American Brainwashing Zone, you will quickly perceive that the rest of the world has left us behind and is surging ahead in various ways. Of course I mean the so called advanced countries. The so called developing countries still suffer deep systemic problems, but in some respects they are in better shape than we are. For one thing their people are often far less brainwashed than we are. They are also not intellectually lazy like so many Americans have become. So, yes, the United States is deep in its decadent phase, and the sooner we acknowledge that reality, the sooner we can really begin to address some of our problems. I will not be holding my breath waiting for that to happen any time soon though.
“WMD’s in and around Tikrit!” “They hate us for our freedom!” “Saddam was a torturer!” “We’re bringing democracy!” “Nobody threatens the Bush family!” (Bush actually made that statement in private) “Saddam has links to 9/11!” “Saddam has links to Al Queda!” “Mushroom Cloud!!” “Aluminum tubes!” “Yellow Cake Uranium from Nigeria!”
These Neocon guys are just plain old warmongers, plain and simple. They believe that war is good for the economy (military industry anyone?). They believe China is a rising power. They believe Russia is a re-emerging power. They believe THEY need to control the oil spiggot- communism drinking from capitalism’s faucet. They believe a little missile defense Arms Race will boost the economy. They actually relish the good old Cold War days… when weapons manufacturers contracts where huge, enemies where red, and communists were better off dead.
Why is the Press so afraid of “The Carlyle Group”,
The Bushco company that has been making so much money
it’s to big to fight. Simply amazing..
The only problem with all this is that both the National Defense University and the National Institute for Strategic Studies are well known for their anti-American agenda.
If America is so ‘great’, then why do you have to ‘defend’ it all the time?
First I want to echo the Sentiment of Bill from Saginaw (bill street) who spoke thus:
“Certainly the most disheartening aspect of this report is that its author still considers Iraq a “must win” situation, despite the scathing professional analysis of what is going on from a military and political perspective.”
And I want now to add a second lament, that the ONE and ONLY “military man” who could have prevented this train-wreck of a foreign misadventure, a member of my own branch of service (Army), not only “did nothing” to prevent what he HAD TO KNOW to be a gigantic mistake. But he even aided and abetted the misadventure to the great detriment of his “own Army”, which is now, (and this too was predictable),”broken”.
I am referring of course, to Colin Powell, who was the only cabinet member “smart enough to know better”, and who nevertheless sold-out his own Army brethren, to appease Bush…
And I believe he could have single-handedly stopped this misadventure in its tracks if only he had said: “I will resign first Mr. President before I will be a party to this”.
But enough of laying blame, lets look at what will happen if we DON’T pull out of Iraq:
(1) More of our young soldiers will die
(predictable).
(2) Our military will remain “broken” as
recruitment gets harder and harder
(predictable)
(3)The neglect of our wounded and traumatized war veterans will get “even worse” as we try to cope with the fact that “proper” care for them will gawd-awfully expensive…so we will probably “look the other way” (remember, soldiers survive today with injuries that would have killed them only a couple decades ago…that means a LIFETIME of post-service care will be required if we are going to “do the right thing” for these valorous young people.
(4) our already badly battered dollar will sink even lower as we continue to “print money” for a war that nobody has the stomach to pay for “the honest way” (taxation). No, we will just keep borrowing against our grandchildren’s future…let THEM pay for our folly.
(5) And when our currency has finally collapsed, we will become a financial basket-case country, beholden to all sorts of foreign interests. Remember how the financial collapse of the Soviet Union led many of its citizens to “sell out their homeland”…hawking their nuclear know-how on the black market…stealing and selling military hardware to whomever?
Do you really think that can’t happen to us?
This country needs to “get humble” and realize that no matter how powerful our armaments, there are many, many ways to destroy a nation, and the EASIEST way is to allow ourselves to act imprudently, and arrogantly, and bite off far more than we can chew. We must never, never go to war again in such a cavalier manner. Remember, it is OUR JOB as citisens to stop politicians from grand mistakes, if and when they don’t have the sense to do so themselves. We are ALL to blame for this mess…especially those of us who were all “RAH-RAH” for this ill-conceived war.
This report sounds like something to which all 3 candidates could agree. I assume that both Obama and Hillary want to “win”, that is control Iraq in some form of a client state. Also amused to see referenced “the war on terror” rhetoric. Sounds to me, you folks (and I guess Canadians in tow) are going to be fightin ‘em ghostly hosts a long time… maybe till the next millenium.
IF you have not yet done so, please click onto this link, read it and foreword it to as many people as you possibly can, particularly those who you think might be considering voting for John McCain in November.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1028-01.htm
bakunin: well said.
Quelle: as long as we have a military (standing armies, banned by our Constitution), we will start wars - that’s a fact of life (and capitalism) - nations without a huge bloated military wouldn’t dare start a war…
All fascist dictatorships self-destruct. You cannot feed the MIC beast and the people at the same time - sooner or later, one or both must go. It’s just a matter of time…
The problem isn’t the administration - it’s the Congress-critters who capitulate to every fascist whim. Get rid of the warmongers - DFL, GOP, or anything else - and the rest will sort itself out, out of necessity.
I agree with most of the posts above. Imagine that! We’re losing in Iraq! What a revelation! Anyone in the world outside of the US has known that for a long time, and finally the majority of Americans have caught on. But those who support Hillary and, a fortiori, McCain seem not to have figured out that it was a bad idea from the get-go.
Joe Collins is another Washington insider, staking out his position, and that of his institution, in a post-Bush world. He lays most of the blame, if this account is accurate, at the feet of the civilians, ignoring the enormous complicity of the generals, starting with Tommy Franks and ending with David Petraeus, in the debacle. Of course. He works for the military.
He thinks this is a ‘must win’ situation, but he is saddled with the same military geniuses that drove Iraq into the ground. For we must make no mistake about it. Though the civilian leadership created the situation, the military botched it, and botched it mightily. As they are wont to do. The military provoked the uprising in Falluja and made good on their failure to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis in the streets by destroying the city. It was certainly a civilian mistake to dump the Iraqi military on the streets; it was worse to batter down the doors of civilian homes looking for “suspects” on faulty inteligence (always faulty inteligence! have we forgotten that military inteligence is an oxymoron?) and abusing the residents. The military oversaw Abu Ghraib, then covered up the story. The military oversaw the ethnic cleansing of Baghdad, in the guise of the “surge”, then claimed — as Collins does — that security has been enhanced.
Collins is the military’s boy, and the military has maneuvered throughout to shift the blame for the debacle to the civilians. The civilians should be hung, no doubt about it. But so should several generals, and there are a lot of military personnel out there who, in a just world, would be tried for war crimes.
Meanwhile, the next civilians — Hilary and Obama — prate on about the brave work of the military, how we need to support our military, how we need to expand the military. Let’s try honesty for a change. Lincoln wasn’t afraid of honesty when it came to the conduct of his war. We don’t need to grovel before the military. We need to call them to account.
Outcome in doubt?
no, oil is coming out of the ground, mission accomplished.
A+ for Big Oil’s security services provided free by the US government.
There are many ways to read this, but too many of them operate on the assumption that these guys are a bunch of morons, and I assure you that they are not. What is being done is not the aimless flopping about of fish in a net, but rather is accomplished by some of our best and brightest. My point is that this the enacting of evil, in our name, and that they see us as the fish flopping about in the net because we never supposed that anyone would ever do this with evil intent, nor does anyone yet want to believe it. Our government has been usurped for the personal gain of a relatively small number of cynics, and we have the government we deserve.
there is no doubt about one ‘outcome’………….the horrific cancers and genetic deformities caused by the depleted uranium.
What?
So you want to start a war in the middle east?
Why?
To controll oil, throw billions at the military industrial complex, create a global situtation of fear, institue the largest spy network the world has ever seen using the IAFF FBI ATF NAS CIA coordinating local self rightous religious community watch groups, operate in total control with the aid of large corporations and major media bias.
Who?
Create a Neocon political group in the 90s with Bush,Cheny,Rice,Rove,Rumsfield and more.
And find some willing Terrorist pal, Osama Bin Laden, some one your family has know a long time.
How?
You need to get a Neocon of your group elected,steel the election if nessecary.
Ignore possible threat of an imenent attacks reported by various intelligence agencies.Make sure the day of the attack you are 1500 miles away, but on the same coast.
Where?
A target that would gain world support for you plan.
In a large city and country that wont take any crap from anybody
The World Trade Centers New York. USA.
When?
9/11, Nine Eleven , 911 call for help , it goes on and on.
We are a bunch of Dumb Asses.
Wake up America!!!!!
Compounding the problem was a series of faulty assumptions made by Bush’s top aides, among them an expectation fed by Iraqi exiles that Iraqis would be grateful to America for liberating them from Saddam’s dictatorship. The administration also expected that “Iraq without Saddam could manage and fund its own reconstruction.”
This almost seems ludicrous now. That people running this country could be so infantile and naive to image all they had to do was invade and the country would be there’s for the taking. These Islamic peoples have centuries long religious hatreds that have only been kept corked by a tyrant. And Bush thought all we had to do was invade and everything would be coming up roses??????? It didn’t take a genius to figure out he was starting something he wasn’t going to be able to finish. Even dumb me knew it was going to be a fiasco.
All the reports, all the self examinations, all the truths about how we became enmired in this illegal war for profit and three bucks will get you a cup of Starbucks coffee. The real problems besetting this nation cannot even be addressed until the citizens understand the nature of our government’s sell out to the forces of globalism, to rampant corporatism.
Many of the comments above are perfectly on target yet these very commenters will undoubtedly vote for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton and sit back believing their duty to this nation has been fulfilled. Until we the people understand how completely we have been tricked into believing that there is really a distinct two party system here, until we all understand completely that this is an artifice to keep us silent and complacent the problems continue unabated.
Several million people all over the world knew it was going to be a debacle, (and that it was illegal and immoral). Now we need this elite Pentagon institute to find this out (at least the first characterization).
And how about our “opposition party” the Dems? They can either plead incompetence or complicity. Either way, they have not earned my vote.
ALOHA !!
The only way the USA can continue warfare throughout the World is by printing money out of thin air. We are the first “fiat based” World Reserve Currency that has ever existed in human history. As long as our government and other global governments maintain a fiat based currency they can afford to fund any War they choose. The currency we currently have is known as a Federal Reserve Note(FRN)and is not Constitutional.
As many of you here in the USA know and many throughout the World, even Europe, know the cost of everything is rising. This is not due to “speculators”, but it is due to governemnets creating more money than goods and services. Since Aug, 2007 we have been bailing out US Banks to the tune of some $200bil and a low ball estimate put out by Goldman Sachs indicates a “total” US Bank bailout cost of $950bil. Add to that the “War On Terror” and the cost already in place to keep the US government solvent as well as the coming cost to support 77mil baby boomers who will be retiring in the next ten years and it becomes obvious why the US Comptroller General of the GAO, Mr. David Walker, resigned. It’s kind of like what happened when the CEO of Enron resigned suddenly. Who really wants to be Captain of the Titanic?
Put all this into perspective … The BIG PICTURE is the “American Dream” is all based on debt. We are now enslaved to debt, which is exactly where the elite bankers and politicians want us. We can no longer afford our own Democracy. The problem is exactly what our Founding Fathers warned us of over 200 years ago … BIG CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT! Welcome to the USSA! We voted for it! Barrack Obama will not bring any CHANGE … What we as US citizens have to do in order to completely shake up the “Two Party Aristocracy” is to remove the real power behind these war mongers … the US FEDERAL RESERVE BANK! Abolish the FED and the IRS … Decentralize Washington DC. Return the tax revenues to the communities that generated them. Your tax dollars run a gauntlet of special interest in Washington DC and then the best they can do with your hard-earned money is Iraq? NO … “We The People” have given these egomaniacs control for too long. They have failed as leaders ever since the Korean War. I won’t even mention the debacle that was the Vietnam War. Why do we as voters constantly reward failure? Why do we keep voting in the same “Two Parties” who continually produce moral and fiscal failures? The list of US government failures is staggering. Someone here please list all the successes the US govenrment has produced over the past sixty years?
Take away our government’s ability to fund War and you have real “CHANGE”!
GOVERNMENT IS ONLY AS HONEST AS ITS MONEY …
I must heartily commend those who have spoken here before me. For the most part I am in agreement with the various comments that have been made. But, regardless of the consensus of opinion that leans more toward the malfunctioning of the Bush administration and military actions directed by “a convenient scapegoat”, Donald Rumsfeld, I feel comfortable as the November general election nears.
Despite all the noise voiced by distractors, I am confident that if we had enough Americans dumb enough to re-elect George W. Bush in 2004, we surely have enough who are dumb enough to elect John McCain in 2008.
Go ahead, I dare you to make me eat my words.
I must heartily commend those who have spoken here before me. For the most part I am in agreement with the various comments that have been made. But, regardless of the consensus of opinion that leans more toward the malfunctioning of the Bush administration and military actions directed by “a convenient scapegoat”, Donald Rumsfeld, I feel comfortable as the November general election nears.
Despite all the noise voiced by distractors, I am confident that if we had enough Americans dumb enough to re-elect George W. Bush in 2004, we surely have enough who are dumb enough to elect John McCain in 2008.
Go ahead, I dare you to make me eat my words.
the most disheartening aspect of this report to me is that there is no mention of the role of israelfirsters who played such a large part in pushing this war (feith, et al)
if we cannot openly, publicly discuss the role of israelfirsters then we will be in iraq or iran for 100 years just as it has been planned.
and the only one for whom iraq is a mustwin is israel.
for the US it is a mustgetout before total bankruptcy
Galen wrote:
“Now it turns out that all the information you need to carry out another ‘9/11′ style trojan horse attack can be found in a dumpster on a New York city street.”
Makes one wonder whether those plans were drawn up before 9/11 for the re-building of the towers.
As far as I can see only two commentators,
wdmax3 who wrote: “But little do most of us all realize is that it is going exactly as planned. Destabilization of the region, destruction of the culture, chaos and mayhem that requires a military presence for as long as their [there] is oil to be stolen.”
and
bobpomeroy who wrote: “ There are many ways to read this, but too many of them operate on the assumption that these guys are a bunch of morons, and I assure you that they are not. What is being done is not the aimless flopping about of fish in a net, but rather is accomplished by some of our best and brightest. My point is that this the enacting of evil,…”
and
ardee : (just scroll up and read it..)
.. have got the point.
The rest of you seem self delusional believing there ever was an “enemy” on 9-11 and that there was any legitimate aim of defence in “the war on terror” as you grade personality, culpability, success or failure with your own righteous opinions. You just don’t get it do you? You are being had ! You’ve been sold the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State. You’ve been fleeced and there are a bunch of CEOs and the Senators and Congressmen that they keep in power in Washington and Jerusalem who are laughing themselves silly about your “discussions” on winning and loosing in Iraq, while what was designed was “GLOBAL DESTABALIZATION” the ultimate “divide and conquer” for world hegemony through tyranny and violence.
But yet you insist on going on about Bush. You think he is the “decider”, his administration the cause. You cannot see thet he is just the clever clown they bring out for the crowds to jeer at. McCain would do just as well probably better because he has even less brain to think for himself with. These and all the other “executives” are 100% replaceable and 1000% CONTROLED. And it will not matter if you have Obama or Clinton in 09. Just listen to them today talk on Israel, Iran or America’s interests in the ME and you will know it is the same people in charge behind them. They are not allowed to “run” for the office if they don’t jump through the hoops.
You have no democracy. Most of you are blind mindless slaves to war and debt, and so far you have condemned your great grandchildren to the same doom but they will have to run harder, fight dirtier, and kill more to get no-where faster but feed the greed and avarice of the grand-children of today’s elite few who will continue to run your “evil empire”.
You have no rule of law, with torturers and war criminals going back through at least the last 5 administrations and many more are the same today as yesterday. Remember Chile, Nicaragua, Panama, Haiti….. now Afghanistan and Iraq, tomorrow Iran and after that China?
A new crop of usable nuclear weapons being stockpiled, at least 7 billion Dollars spent last year on development of biological weapons research and who knows what else, all in contravention of international treaty is waiting in the wings.
You have nothing to fear if you are doing nothing against this great country. That’s why we listen to your phones and read your e-mails. It’s for your own good.
Americans, Hitler was an amateur compared with the ultimate fascist MIC you support knowingly or by ignorant default. And you think it’s all a big mistake, a big misunderstanding, a stupid administration gone wrong?
“Global Government by the corporations for the corporations”.
PS: Sorry if I sound righteous and condescending to some but really I want you to open your eyes to see the present so that we can change the future together for the better of all “people”.
I come at this Bush whack thing a little different. I think to Bush and Co., it matters little where they spend their money as long as they cripple the federal gov.. They view the federal Gov. as an obstacle to allowing private individuals to operate in a manner that allows wealth to be centralized by these individuals. They wish to control the certain States, which they will be more management effective and cost effective, in their investments toward public policy.
If they run up the deficient to a point where the Fed. Gov drowns, then no new programs can be funded because what little taxes that are collected must be spent for national security [Iraq] and debt relief.
Its the civil war being fought all over again based on the ideal of states rights’s. They are attempting to replace the black slaves with other colors .
Where will the neo-cons run to, when the food riots break out in the big cities. These people that have brought this on America must be made to account.
jerrys:
If you think the dems were the only spineless idiots in Washingtoon, you are either:
a) asleep at the switch;
b) living in a cave;
c) one of those cowardly repug pseudoconservatives whose chief goal is to chronically shift the onus of rightful blame from the repug thugs who’ve controlled both Senate and Congress, Supreme Court, and the White House, i.e., ALL THREE BRANCHES for nearly 8 yrs, the DoD, the Media Complex (radio, newspapers, TV, et al) US Treasury, World Bank, IMF, Dept. of Justice, CIA, NSA, Dept. of Homeland Security, Wall Street, et al!
The majority of us long ago recognized the futility of the invasion and the occupation. Now that these brass hats have reached the same conclusion, how do we get Bush to read the report, apologize to both the American people and Iraq for the blunder he committed and continues to compound, and start withdrawing?
Lucitanian,
I agree with you completely. wdmax3, pomeroy, and ardee:
We are one.
It is really quite simple. Either we remove the criminals by the most expedient means possible at that moment, or we are all finished as a species, for the current situation is easy enough to extrapolate to its logical conclusion.