LEAKED: 2003 Memo Indicates Blair Envoy Felt US Postwar Stragegy=DISASTER!

[kpete]

Leaked: Blair envoy said US Iraq strategy 'complete mess'
A leaked memo from 2003 indicates that Blair's aides felt postwar strategy was a disaster. 'We may have been seduced into something we might be inclined to regret.'

US postwar Iraq strategy a mess, Blair was told

Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Tuesday March 14, 2006
The Guardian

Senior British diplomatic and military staff gave Tony Blair explicit warnings three years ago that the US was disastrously mishandling the occupation of Iraq, according to leaked memos.

John Sawers, Mr Blair's envoy in Baghdad in the aftermath of the invasion, sent a series of confidential memos to Downing Street in May and June 2003 cataloguing US failures. With unusual frankness, he described the US postwar administration, led by the retired general Jay Garner, as "an unbelievable mess" and said "Garner and his top team of 60-year-old retired generals" were "well-meaning but out of their depth".

.........................

The memos were obtained by Michael Gordon, author, along with General Bernard Trainor, of Cobra II: the Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq, published to coincide with the third anniversary of the invasion.

The British memos identified a series of US failures that contained the seeds of the present insurgency and anarchy.

The mistakes include:

· A lack of interest by the US commander, General Tommy Franks, in the post-invasion phase.

· The presence in the capital of the US Third Infantry Division, which took a heavyhanded approach to security.

· Squandering the initial sympathy of Iraqis.

· Bechtel, the main US civilian contractor, moving too slowly to reconnect basic services, such as electricity and water.

· Failure to deal with health hazards, such as 40% of Baghdad's sewage pouring into the Tigris and rubbish piling up in the streets.

· Sacking of many of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party, even though many of them held relatively junior posts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1730427,00.html
via:http://www.rawstory.com/

[annabanana]

1. "may have been".. "might be inclined to regret"

oh brother..

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. typical brit stuffy upper liposuction. It is not what they say, but how.

Still, sure seems as though their analysis was "spot on, mate". Pity our MSM was seduced by Bremer and his direct boss, Condi Rice.

Again, why does the media ignore the fact that condi was in charge of the reconstruction when it did its worst?

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. But I thought their god told them

everything was great?

[DanCa]

3. The more I know of this war the more I hate it.

I just can't stand the chimp. The scarey thing is that despite all we know people are still supporting the man monkey. What's it going to take to get rid of King George?

[HereSince1628]

5. Big deal. This will have zero effect in the US and not much more

than that in the UK.

Seems to me like a lame CYA attempt...a way for some of the folks around Downing Street to say they weren't all stupid. Which says nothing about their misplaced loyalties and failures to speak in a timely manner when it might have done some good.

[Mend]

6. See, it wasn't "going to war" that was bad, just "mistakes made"

setting up the peace. I am starting to hear this theme and it is outrageous.