Ex-Pentagon Aide Says U.S. Abandoned Quick Iraq Transition

[laststeamtrain]

Source: Washington Post

Ex-Pentagon Aide Says U.S. Abandoned Quick Iraq Transition

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 11, 2007; Page A03

A former top Pentagon official blamed the Bush administration's top official in Iraq for abandoning a plan for a quick transition to Iraqi leadership in the summer of 2003 and instead keeping the U.S. government in control of the country for more than a year.

The decision to carry out "a lengthy occupation was, I believe, the single biggest mistake the United States made in Iraq," said Douglas J. Feith, who as undersecretary of defense for policy was a key figure in the drive to war.

Feith, in a speech last night at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, provided his most extensive public remarks on the war and reconstruction efforts in Iraq. When he briefed President Bush on U.S. plans for post-invasion Iraq, he recalled, "The original concept was not that the CPA would be around for many, many months." But, he said, L. Paul Bremer, who ran the U.S. occupation authority in 2003 and 2004, decided that Feith's plan "was not implementable" and instead embarked on a course that antagonized Iraqis and spurred an insurgency.

After describing his differences with Bremer, Feith said, "I don't view this as an attack" on him, but rather an attempt to explain how reasonable officials advanced contrary views.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[terisan]

1. Feith tries to escape blame . With Hussein gone, a power struggle among Iraqis factions was certain.

It is pathetic watching the neocons trying to avoid accountability for the outcome of their evildoing;

[rockybelt]

2. Another rat

abandoning ship and looking for a lifeboat. Somebody throw him an anchor.

[tanyev]

3. Oh, sure, that would have solved everything.

[bemildred]

4. I love it when they start to eat their own and argue about who's to blame. nt

[LynnTheDem]

5. Invading and killing people that hadn't been doing one damn thing to us or anyone else

would seem to most sane people to be the "first biggest mistake".

But then, America isn't run by sane people.

[karynnj]

6. More of the theme that the neocon idea was right, but Bush implemented it badly

My guess is that it is because of the vanity of those involved that we may learn the truth of what happened. It should be possible to look at all the self serving accounts and what is known at every point to identify who did what. The single biggest mistake was invading.