[Vision2020] 10-26-04 LA Times OP/ED: Worse Than the Usual Bad

[Dan Carscallen]

well, we shouldn't have to worry about them using said explosives to
detonate nuclear weapons, because there aren't any there . . .

right?

DC


-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Art Deco aka W. Fox
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 7:52 AM
To: Vision 2020
Subject: [Vision2020] 10-26-04 LA Times OP/ED: Worse Than the Usual Bad


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-iraq26oct26.story 
EDITORIAL
Worse Than the Usual Bad

October 26, 2004

The confirmation Monday that U.S. forces in Iraq failed to prevent the
looting of 380 tons of conventional explosives represents a new chapter
for the "just when you thought things could not get much worse" file.
Further, the execution-style murder Saturday of dozens of Iraqis being
trained as soldiers, the very men to whom the United States planned to
transfer the job of guarding the country, demonstrates an abject failure
by Iraqis and occupation officials to learn from past mistakes.

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced Monday what it told the
interim Iraqi government and the Bush administration earlier this month:
High-powered explosives that could demolish buildings, bring down
aircraft or detonate nuclear weapons have disappeared from a former
Iraqi army site about 30 miles south of Baghdad. A Pentagon official
said troops searched the site soon after the March 2003 invasion and
found the explosives that had previously been counted by the United
Nations. But U.S.-led coalition forces failed to guard the site, and the
explosives later disappeared.

President Bush has repeatedly said his generals have not told him they
need more than the 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. But it's now clear that
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his Pentagon colleagues should
have listened to Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, then the Army chief of staff,
when he warned that "several hundred thousand" troops would be required
to win the peace as well as the war. Instead, Rumsfeld and his deputy,
Paul Wolfowitz, disparaged Shinseki and shoved him aside.

The ineptness of the Pentagon's civilian leadership surfaced as well in
its confused attack-and-retreat from the Sunni stronghold of Fallouja.
Times reporters Alissa J. Rubin and Doyle McManus reported Sunday that
after the March 31 killing and mutilation of four American security
guards, a Marine general said that rather than besiege the city out of
anger, his troops should first enlist moderates to provide intelligence.
Rumsfeld did not tell Bush of the Marines' objections, and the president
authorized the attack. Yet when the Marines reported that they were
close to retaking the city, the White House, worried about backlash,
ordered a cease-fire. Fallouja remains under insurgent control and is
the base of one of Iraq's main terrorist leaders, Abu Musab Zarqawi.

Zarqawi's followers claimed responsibility for the Saturday attack on
the unarmed army recruits. Rebels dressed as police or soldiers stopped
three vehicles, ordered the passengers out and shot them. Iraqi police
and military trainees have been targets for months. The recruits should
have been protected by other soldiers or given weapons to defend
themselves.

The U.S. military prides itself on the lessons it learns in combat. Yet
the continued assaults on Iraqi police and military trainees, and the
evidence that insurgents keep infiltrating those squads, indicate a
failure to adapt tactics to an increasingly powerful and sophisticated
enemy.

There have been better days in the Iraq war, but not many worse ones.