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11/04/2004: They ought to know....
The nineteen months since the war in Iraq began, some of the most outspoken critics of President Bush's plan of attack have come from a group that should have been the most supportive: retired senior military leaders. We spoke with a group of generals and admirals that included a former supreme Allied commander and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and they all agreed on one thing: Bush screwed up.Take a look at the whole thing; it's worth it.
A couple gems from this article (a few more will show up in future "Thoughts for the Day", no doubt):
As for the recent news about the 380 tons of explosives that disappeared, it's irrelevant when they disappeared. This was known by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a site to be watched. Here is the issue: Bush tried to turn this into a political matter instead of answering questions about why he didn't follow the warnings of the IAEA. It was another example of Bush being a cheerleader instead of a leader. Nothing in Iraq was guarded except for the oil fields, which tells you why we were there. There are any number of indications that with a larger troop strength we would have been able to deal with such sites. Here is my other concern: The IAEA gave us a list of sites to be watched, so there may have been other dumps that were looted. After all, you don't just put one item on a list.
--LTG Claudia Kennedy, AUS(ret.) [former Army Deputy CoS for Intelligence]
[I]t's not just about troop strength. I mean, you will fail if you don't have enough troops, but simply adding troops won't make you succeed.
--GEN Wesley Clark, AUS(ret.) [former NATO Supreme Commander]
Len on 11.04.04 @ 11:59 AM CST
