Rumsfeld ignored militia warnings

[medeak]

U.S. Ignored Militia Warnings
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/index.html#1249
Every now and again it's tempting to become "reasonable" and imagine that the Bush administration isn't quite so insular and close-minded and impervious to common sense as it's usually portrayed to be. But then comes along an article like this telling us that, no, it's all true:


U.S. officials were warned for more than two years that Shiite Muslim militias were infiltrating Iraq's security forces and taking control of neighborhoods, but they failed to take action to counteract it, Iraqi and American officials said….

"The American politicians couldn't understand the deepness and complications of the region," said Falah al-Nakib, the interior minister from June 2004 to April 2005, who said he raised the militia problem and the growing Iranian influence in Iraq with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. "They didn't take us seriously."...

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. rumsfeld is a particularly wise ass kind of know-it-all.

The kind that gets it wrong every fucking time.

[leftchick]

2. LIHOP

it is all part of the long range plan.

[creeksneakers2]

3. They wanted to mischaracterize the war

The Bush cabal wanted to make it look like Al Qaeda was behind all the violence. If the public learned the war was more of a sectarian conflict, they'd hold Bush responsible. Bush was warned all along that invading Iraq could lead to a sectarian war. I think the White House ignored the warnings of Shi'ite militia infiltration because they didn't want any news getting out that conflicted with their story.