OPENING REMARKS - IRAQ PRESS CONFERENCE::
in foreign policy and to take the lead in providing an exit strategy in Iraq. Even if you believe that the United States should never have entered Iraq, it
http://www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20050125meehan.pdfHOME |
In the days and weeks leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, there was considerable media speculation concerning the outcome of the war. There was one area in which all the pundits were agreed. The war would be won quickly and the difficulty would be in winning the peace after the fall of Saddam Hussein and Baghdad. The post war period would provide additional risk because Iraq was surrounded by the terrorist states of Iran and Syria. Well it seems that this most difficult part of the invasion, the planning that was necessary to create stability and order in a post - Saddam Iraq, never occurred. There never was a plan to win the peace in Iraq. There never was an exit strategy for the United States to leave.
In an interview with GQ Magazine to be released on September 10, 2007, General Colin Powell (retired General and former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) is questioned on a range of subjects. It is his comments on the planning for the Iraq war that caught my attention. The article states that Powell and others in the Bush administration debated strategy in the lead-up to the war. However, Powell did not think the Pentagon and then-secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had planned for what would happen after Baghdad fell. ( Quoting Colin Powell From GQ Magazine ): That was the big mistake. Don had written a list of the worst things that could happen, but we didnt do the contingency planning on what we would do about it. So we watched those buildings get burned down, and nobody told the divisions, Hey, go in there and declare martial law and whack a few people and it will stop. Then the insurgency started, and we didnt acknowledge it. They said it wasnt an insurgency. They looked up the definition. They said it was a few dead-enders! And so we didnt respond in a way that might have stopped it. And then the civil war started at the beginning of last year. I call it a civil war, but some say no, its not a civil war, its a war against civilians. In fact, we have total civil disorder.
Iraq: An Exit Strategy- by Justin Raimondo::
Iraq: An Exit Strategy. The tough love approach. by Justin Raimondo drawing the conclusion that the Iraq war was never a good idea to begin with,
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=5378HOME |
Looking back to April12, 2003, right after the fall of Baghdad, here was the Iraq exit strategy as reported by this Bloomberg headline: “The U.S. has no exit strategy or timetable for withdrawing its forces from Iraq and a pull-out depends on the readiness of the Iraqi Security Forces,” The story went on to quote Donald Rumsfeld as follows: ``We dont have an exit strategy, we have a victory strategy, he told soldiers during a surprise visit to Baghdad, “The goal is to help the Iraqi Forces develop the skills and the capacity to provide their own security.”
How to Exit Iraq::
The U.S. exit from Iraq should driven by a strategy that seeks to consolidate the national government, not a timetable that could be perceived as a forced
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/17/AR2005121700946.htmlHOME |
A Better Strategy For Iraq::
the South Vietnamese army was never strong enough to prevail against hold and build will fail if its seen as an exit strategy, this official argues.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/03/AR2005110301971_pf.htmlHOME |
Eight months later on November 12, 2003, the Administration’s exit strategy had not developed very much. Here is a quote from Rumsfeld again “Our exit strategy in Iraq is success; its that simple, The objective is not to leave, but rather is to succeed in our mission.
It was not until January 28, 2005, nearly two years after the invasion of Iraq, that some discussion occurred to begin the process of winning the peace in Iraq. This was reported in the Guardian: “The agreement was reached on Monday between the US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and his British counterpart, Geoff Hoon. It was based on recommendations from retired US general Gary Luck, sent to Iraq by the Pentagon last month to look at the failings of Iraqs security force. The more aggressive police force is designed gradually to replace the 150,000 coalition troops and will form the centerpiece of plans for Britain and the US to quit Iraq. Although no deadline has been set for withdrawal - partly, British sources say, because it may encourage the insurgents - Britain has made a phased pull-out its top priority. Everything the Defense Secretary is working towards now is an exit strategy, but without a public timetable, said a British military source.
It is clear that winning the peace was never in the plan for the war in Iraq. It was not a planning priority before the invasion. There was no real evidence of even discussing a plan for leaving Iraq until early in 2005 (Rumsfeld meeting with the British) when several countries of the U.S. led world coalition began withdrawing their military forces weary from Iraq’s developing civil war and ongoing insurgency events.
Since that report in the “Guardian” twenty months ago, nothing much has changed in Iraq. Consider the findings of a report issued in late August 2007 from the U.S. Government Accountability Office on the status of 18 military and political goals set by Congress for Iraq. The report found that the Iraqi government has not yet met its requirement concerning 13 of the 18 goals including:
*Providing three trained and ready Iraqi brigades to support Baghdad operations.
*Ensuring that the Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for outlaws, regardless of sectarian or political affiliation.
In Iraq, since April 2003, we have seen insurgency, civil war, troops reduced, troop surges, and the Iraqi government’s failure to meet benchmarks. We have seen these setbacks because the Bush Administration had a plan to win the war, but never developed a plan to win the peace. There was no contingency planning to govern Iraq after Baghdad fell and there never was an Iraq exit strategy.
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There Never Was an Iraq Exit Strategy