10 things i dislike about the war effort

Ok folks I’ve been making tons and tons of –pro- war commentary lately…so let me talk for a moment about what I don’t like about the War in Iraq.

I support the war, but I don’t support the p!$$ poor way the government has set about the War.

#1 Weapons of Mass Destruction was a joke. Making the Casus Belli full court on WMD wouldn’t work. It was the best case in a strictly legal manner but in the case of attracting other nations it would never work. As we have now found out with Able Danger there is more evidence that the Prauge Incident did happen then the government made the case for. That and allegations the IA observed a Feydaheen Saddam officer was present at least one of the planning meetings does establish a far superior case of Casus Belli. The president could have also went to the American people and talked about how the United States would use the full strength of our national power to save a people from a dictator who would callously murder and torture them. We could have made a better Casus Belli to rally the support of the world… it would have less of a legal case but when everyone agrees that makes law.

#2 We dropped the ball on Turkey
We did. The US government could have made Turkey a staging ground and they blew it. That made the casualties of the actual combat period far worse… and probably lead to the drawn out “where’s Saddam” period.

#3 Powell never really challenged the Franco-German Axis of weasels in diplomatic terms.

Powell as a sec state from everything I have read sat in foggy bottom and occasionally NY. Powell needed to be out there doing counter-diplomacy to DeVillpen… or he needed to be canned. Bush in his pandering to get African-American voters put perhaps the worst Secretary of state in modern US history into office during a time when we needed some one with fat diplomatic skills.

#4 THE RED LINE AROUND BAGHDAD.
Saddam was never going to use Chemical and Biological weapons on US troops. The assertion he was by our military and our government may rank as one of the ten dumbest things they have ever said. Not only was preparing for this foolish, selling it to the media was foolish because it helped to build the case for the US war as “the gang that couldn’t shoot straight”

On top of that in the first gulf war Dick Cheney (yes that Dick Cheney) hinted the US would use any weapons in their arsenal to respond to such an attack. Saddam’s security team would have remembered this. So first and foremost they would have to worry just how far unconventionally against their men the US would go.

Then you have to go to folks like Lt. Ahmed. Lt. Ahmed may indeed have orders to use a VX artillery shell. But Lt. Ahmed knows if Iraq loses, he will be guilty of war crimes (and possibly executed). There is a very huge difference to fanatical loyalty to a brutal dictator and going down the drain with him.

#5 Putting the US Millitary in charge of occupation.

The US military has only twice in its 230 or so year History gotten occupations of countries right. Wanna know all the places they got it wrong.. Well most of Central America and the Caribbean have been occupied and administered by the US military once or twice (and one case 3 times)… only countries who are economically stable are wellllll Japan and Germany. And those occupations were hardly just the Military either.

Now beyond that the US Millitary has a very “Guns and Butter” budget philosophy. If they have a insufficient amount of money in the guns budget some where they will take it out of the butter budget. So more soft scale projects like “Hey lets train locals to take over security” fell by the wayside when IED’s were happening and dirty terrorists needed to die.

#6 Not planning for Prisoners.
Geee now Larry can’t you cut them a break. How were they supposed to know they’d have all these POWs. Well gosh that’s a good point when did they have something comparable… Oh yeah the first gulf war where most of the Iraqi units put up white flags. Add to that we had US prison guards who tend to be the type of guys who are in National Guard and reserve units assigned to do things other then… well guarding prisoners. They had a good core of people who could have been assigned and transferred to do the job. Not giving the MP’s the training in how to deal with that was ludicrous. Not ensuring the discipline was tight in those units lead to the sexual sadism of the Abu Ghraib gang.

#7 Not Planning for “Hate America” fest

Look when the US militarizes heavily and has since the Cold War era an amazing thing happens in Europe. They start to hate America as an Imperialist Aggressor. And as goes Europe so goes the NYTimes. As goes the Times so goes the US media. I hate to use the word propaganda because the connotation is so negative but the US media was going to embrace the Weasel Axis and our government wasn’t prepared for it. Had the government been fighting for hearts and minds here we’d have more resolve over there.

#8 Not Handling the UN during the reconstruction

Had the UN not withdrawn from Iraq after the attacks on their mission early in the post war period we’d be out of Iraq right now.  The UN ran for the hills and our government didn’t pressure the UN to stand its ground effectively.

#9 Calling a rat hole a spider hole
We allow to much pro-islamist propaganda to be repeated by out military to sound culturally sensitive. We need to stop that

#10 Imbeded media

I think it set the wrong relationship with the press. I think if we handled them as we did during the First gulf war we’d not be losing on the home front as we are.