BBCnews.com: US failures 'fuel Iraq militants'

[dutchdoctor]

A prestigious US political research body has accused the US government of giving impetus to Iraq's insurgency through a lack of post-war planning.

A Council on Foreign Relations study said the decision that reconstruction would not need any more forces than the invasion was a critical miscalculation.

(snip)

"The failure to take this phase of conflict as seriously as initial combat operations has had serious consequences for the United States, not just in Iraq but, more broadly, for international efforts to stabilise and rebuild nations after conflict."

Specifically, it said the perceived failure to prepare properly for the post-war period had given an "early impetus for the insurgency".

full article here

________

So much for "Fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here"...

[CJCRANE]

1. more like

"creating them over there so they'll want to come over here"

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. BBCnews needs to change their line to

US Freedoms fuels insurgency.... much easier for shrub to understand and accept.

[snot]

3. Blair may peel off

It appears both Bush and Blair are considering withdrawing troops more or less asap--political expediency.

But I assume they wouldn't do so without some assurance they'll likely retain control of whatever they went to war for in first place--oil? military bases? contracts in dollars rather than Euros? --

The fact that we've not developed any sure consensus about this does NOT bode well for our ability to respond to this adversary!

Be that as it may . . .

What is Blair still getting out of this? I'm thinking he may not feel fully and fairly requited for his support.

However, BP is one of the biggest oil cos. in the world, and I've seen no analysis of its interests in this conflict.

[dutchdoctor]

4. I am not sure about BP,

but I think Shell (40% British) got some major concessions on oil fields in the south of Iraq.
Could the withdrawal mean that they have given up on their original purposes for this war and are just cutting their political losses? Or am I being overly optimistic? Time will tell, I guess

[htuttle]

5. Bush isn't going to pull out

He's going to do a massive head fake before the 2006 midterms, and maybe cut down the size of the occupying army, but there's no way he's going to leave all those permanent bases they just built there sitting empty.