As questions surface, Rumsfeld defends pre-war planning

[The Straight Story]

As questions surface, Rumsfeld defends pre-war planning

By Amy Klamper, CongressDaily
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld defended the Bush administration's pre-war planning effort for Iraq before Senate appropriators Wednesday in response to questions raised in a recent RAND Corp., study.

During a Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Rumsfeld lashed out at Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., when he raised questions about issues addressed in the report as well as the pre-war prediction of former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki that several hundred thousand troops would be needed to execute the war plan as well as any post-war conflict.

"I am tired of Shinseki being bandied about," Rumsfeld said. "We have done what the generals on the ground believed to be the right thing."

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that in the buildup to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, all the military service chiefs supported the war plan, including Shinseki. Myers said Shinseki only offered his best guess as to the number of troops needed in Iraq after he was pressed by lawmakers. He said Shinseki believed such decisions should be left to the commanders charged with overseeing the contingency plans.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0405/042705cdpm2.htm

[EVDebs]

1. OK then, let's bandy Gen Zinni's name about !

"Zinni says Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time - with the wrong strategy"

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/21/60minutes/main618896.shtml

and this

by Ray McGovern in http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/093004X.shtml

"But how many troops would be needed to stabilize Iraq? The well respected International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, before which the president spoke last November, says 500,000. Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki told Congress publicly before the war that "several hundred thousand" troops would be needed. It turns out he was asking for 400,000, fully aware that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was planning to attack and occupy Iraq with just a fraction of that. Rumsfeld gave him the back of his hand."

[lyonn]

2. Straight from, I know nothing's mouth

otherwise known as Rummy. He only knows what others tell him, course he picks and chooses who they are. Glad he is still there to have to answer for himself. Silly Shinseki, what does he know. He "lashes out at Arlen Specter, R-Pa"! Sensitive fellow.

[grytpype]

3. Yeah, it's always someone else's fault.

It's the fault of the "generals on the ground" that we didn't have enough troops.

Assholes. The Bushists, I mean.

[driver8]

4. What pre-war planning??

It doesn't seem to me that these idiots planned for anything!! From not taking the advice of experienced military men to thinking that we would be welcomed with flowers and that Iraqi oil would pay for it...guess what guys?? You fucked up.

If one of them could pull their head out of their ass long enough to actually listen to the "truth" and try and understand what is going on instead of pushing their agenda, we might not be in this mess.

Rumsfeld is about as clueless as they come. Does this moran ever tell the truth about anything?

[libodem]

5. He should be in prison

under the harshest conditions.