Iraq postwar insecurity began in Washington: report

[coda]

One example is the Coalition Provisional Authority.

"CPA stands for the Condescending and Patronizing Americans," a Baghdad diplomat told Newsweek.



Iraq postwar insecurity began in Washington: report
Sun Sep 28, 5:55 PM ET Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo!

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s stubborn guerrilla war, electrical blackouts, looting and chaos were born in Washington -- as US officials missed cues and battled over ideology, said a report.

<snip>

"So there they are, sitting in their palace: 800 people, 17 of whom speak Arabic. One is an expert on Iraq." What happened to the Iraq experts? According to Newsweek, Rumsfeld ordered 16 of the 20 Pentagon staffers picked to go to Baghdad be cut because they were "Arab apologists," had positive opinions of the United Nations (news - web sites) or other opinions not acceptable to the neo-conservatives running the US government.


Rumsfeld's interference "got so bad that even doctors sent to restore medical services had to be anti-abortion," a member of the original team said.

<snip>

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), who is outside the neo-con circle reportedly told Rumsfeld: "I can take hostages, too," Newsweek said. "How hard do you want to play this thing?"




more......

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&e=17&u=/afp/us_iraq_security

[realFedUp]

1. the ongoing conflict

between the Defense and State Depts. continues...

snip
While Pentagon officials derided the United Nations, the State Department was getting information from UN officials on the conditions of the infrastructure, especially the power grid, whose dilapidation took the Pentagon by surprise, the New York weekly said.

"We have until Ramadan to turn it around," British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s emissary to the region, John Sawyers, told US officials. "After that it will be too late."

The Muslim month of prayer and fasting begins October 27.