Why did Bremer speak out now in the middle of the election season? It may just have been an error of judgment on his part. He was speaking to an insurance association in West Virginia, and may not have intended his remarks to become public. As for the substance of his original statement, it is clearly an attempt on his part to begin shifting some of the blame for the Iraq debacle from himself onto other players, chiefly Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. Bremer's place in history, not to mention any future career in Washington, depends on his ability to convince analysts that he was not principally at fault for how things went bad in Iraq.
I remember there being rumors that Bremer pressed Washington for more troops in summer of 2003, to no avail, so he could be settling scores on that rebuff.
Then there was this amazing admission by Rumsfeld at a news conference:
QUESTIONER: My name is Glenn Hutchins. Mr. Secretary, what exactly was the connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda?
RUMSFELD: I tell you, I'm not going to answer the question. I have seen the answer to that question migrate in the intelligence community over the period of a year in the most amazing way. Second, there are differences in the intelligence community as to what the relationship was. To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two.
Why did Rummy suddenly have this episode fo conscience? It may well be a sign of a rift with the Neoconservatives in the Pentagon. They made him look like a fool, and he seems happy to repudiate them. I suspect he is setting up the Neonservatives to take the fall, after the election, when he will ask for their resignations. And it won't be pro forma.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1006-33.htm========
Is there a rift among the neocons, as this article suggests?