Key US hawk (Perle) admits Iraq blunder

[Sticky]

August 28, 2003

TOP Pentagon adviser Richard Perle has admitted the US had made a key blunder in its planning ahead of launching its military campaign in Iraq: the failure to forge close ties with the Iraqi opposition.

Two more US soldiers were killed, and five wounded, in Iraq yesterday as the military administration struggles to bring the country under control months after declaring the war over.

The US administration has stepped up its efforts to defend its "noble cause" in Iraq this week after the death toll among US troops since the end of major combat overtook the number killed during the invasion.

However Mr Perle, in an interview published in the French newspaper Le Figaro today, pointed to a key mistake in the planning for the campaign which has hindered efforts to set up a stable, Iraqi-led administration.

"Our biggest mistake, in my opinion, was the failure to work closely with Iraqis before the war so that an Iraqi opposition could have been able to immediately take the matter in hand," Mr Perle admitted.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7090568%255E1702,00.html

[harrison]

1. May I be the first to say: Fuck you, Mr. Perle.**

**

[pw]

2. Perhaps he means

Failure to work closely with Iraqis who had actually been to the country in recent decades and who had not been convicted of bank fraud.

Given that the secret police would have assassinated any Iraqis leaders within Iraq who worked with the US before the invasion, it seems unclear just how this closer cooperation with people other than the usual cast of emigre puppets would have come about...

[Philosophy]

3. What Iraqi opposition?

We already had the Kurds, and we're not going to give any power to the pro-Iran shiites.