30% of us still approve of George Jr. Many will so hate America as to not read this NY Times article. And yet 30 years from now when America again forgets to learn from history, these are the articles you should have learned from - or denied. Demonstrated is how those who are most corrupt still blame others while denying reasons for failure. Described here is why things that happen next month and next year could have been avoided. From the NY Times of 21 May 2006:
Quote:
Misjudgments Marred U.S. Plans for Iraqi Police
As chaos swept Iraq after the American invasion in 2003, the Pentagon began its effort to rebuild the Iraqi police with a mere dozen advisers. Overmatched from the start, one was sent to train a 4,000-officer unit to guard power plants and other utilities. A second to advise 500 commanders in Baghdad. Another to organize a border patrol for the entire country.
Three years later, the police are a battered and dysfunctional force that has helped bring Iraq to the brink of civil war. Police units stand accused of operating death squads for powerful political groups or simple profit. Citizens, deeply distrustful of the force, are setting up their own neighborhood security squads. Killings of police officers are rampant, with at least 547 slain this year, roughly as many as Iraqi and American soldiers combined, records show.
The police, initially envisioned by the Bush administration as a cornerstone in a new democracy, have instead become part of Iraq's grim constellation of shadowy commandos, ruthless political militias and other armed groups. ...
Before the war, the Bush administration dismissed as unnecessary a plan backed by the Justice Department to rebuild the police force by deploying thousands of American civilian trainers. ...
"Looking back, I really don't know what their plan was," Mr. Kerik said. With no experience in Iraq, and little time to get ready, he said he prepared for his job in part by watching A&E Network documentaries on Saddam Hussein. ...
General Garner said he and others on his staff also warned administration officials that the Iraqi police, after decades of neglect and corruption, would collapse after the invasion. ... "He didn't think it was necessary," General Garner said in an interview.
Mr. Miller, who left the government last year, confirmed his opposition. He said the assessment by the C.I.A. led administration officials to believe that Iraq's police were capable of maintaining order. Douglas J. Feith, then the Defense Department's under secretary for policy, said in an interview that the C.I.A.'s prewar assessment deemed Iraq's police professional, an appraisal that events proved "fundamentally wrong."
But Paul Gimigliano, a spokesman for the C.I.A., said the agency's assessment warned otherwise. ... A copy of the document, which is classified, could not be obtained.
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What intelligence failure? Those who had been reading details knew CIA did not have major intelligence failures about 11 September or Iraq - except where Rush Limbaugh has us lying to ourselves. More from a long list of articles that demonstrate intelligence failures were from neocons who even lied about CIA failures and who said, "Americans don't do nation building." We didn't. Look what that created:
Quote:
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They lost the fight in Washington in March 2004. The field training of a new Iraqi police force — at this point some 90,000 officers — was now left to 500 American contractors from DynCorp. ... David Dobrotka, the top civilian overseeing the DynCorp workers, said he did not seek to hire more trainers, even though there were only 500 in Iraq, because some were not even getting out of their camps because of security concerns. ...
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Were not even leaving green zones when so many back here denied that Iraq was so dangerous and getting worse. Many death squads now operating throughout Iraq are believed to be police.
Either we put 1/2 million soldiers in country and start fixing security immediately, or we should be planning to get out in 6 months. Status quo only means things will get worse, as was posted as a warning here in the Cellar back in late 2004. We did not even provide enough people to train the police. Everywhere a same refrain - not enough boots on the ground. Mission Accomplished.