Gayle in MD
07-27-2006, 12:24 PM
"This books subtitle terms the US effort in Iraq an adventurein the critical sense of adventurism - that is, with the view that the US-led invasion was launched recklessly, with a flawed plan for war, and a worse approach to occupation. Spooked by its own false conclusions about the threat, the Bush Administration hurried its diplomacy, short circuited its War Planning, and assempled an agonizingly incompetent occupation. None of this was inevitable. It was made possible only through the intellectual acrobatics of simultaneously "Worst casing" the threat presented by Iraq while "best casing" the subsequent cost and difficulty of occupying the country."
page 32..
"In September of 2002 - the US Intelligence Community prepared a Comprehensive Summary, called a National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE of what it knew about Iraq's continuing Programs Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction....it was prepared at the request of members of Congress who expected to vote on going to war with Iraq, and wanted something on which to base their votes...as a political document that made the case for war, the NIE of October 2002 succeeded brilliantly. As a professional intelligence product, it was shameful. But, it did its job, which wasn't really to assess Iraqi weapons programs, but to sell a war...there was only one way to disprove its assertions: Invade Iraq, which is what the Bush Administration wanted to do."
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Interesting that this book is yet one more commentary to the lies and twisting of facts, through the elimination of some intel, while embroidering other intel, which led us into this war in Iraq, which we now cannot get out of, as our troops die in the middle of impossibly difficult circumstances, and an average of 100 Iraqis die every day.
The Bush administration's contempt for the Army's assertion that an invasion of Iraq was not a part of the war on terror becomes clear, as does the process the administration used to strip away doubts expressed by the intelligence community in the NIE summaries.
Mr. Rick interviewed over 100 senior military officials, soldiers of all ranks, from private, to four star generals, made five reporting trips in Iraq, and also talked with a number of officials inside the United States. He read 37,000 pages of documents, and recieved CD Roms from some who served in Iraq with "every memo I sent to Paul Bremmer while I was there." Mr. Rick, in an interview on Meet The Press stated that we are now stuck in Iraq, and estimates we will be unable to get out of Iraq for ten to fifteen years.
BTW, the administration failed to even produce, or ask for the production of a NIE before representatives insisted on one, an act which was previously unprecedented.
Gayle in Md.
page 32..
"In September of 2002 - the US Intelligence Community prepared a Comprehensive Summary, called a National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE of what it knew about Iraq's continuing Programs Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction....it was prepared at the request of members of Congress who expected to vote on going to war with Iraq, and wanted something on which to base their votes...as a political document that made the case for war, the NIE of October 2002 succeeded brilliantly. As a professional intelligence product, it was shameful. But, it did its job, which wasn't really to assess Iraqi weapons programs, but to sell a war...there was only one way to disprove its assertions: Invade Iraq, which is what the Bush Administration wanted to do."
------------------------------------------------------------
Interesting that this book is yet one more commentary to the lies and twisting of facts, through the elimination of some intel, while embroidering other intel, which led us into this war in Iraq, which we now cannot get out of, as our troops die in the middle of impossibly difficult circumstances, and an average of 100 Iraqis die every day.
The Bush administration's contempt for the Army's assertion that an invasion of Iraq was not a part of the war on terror becomes clear, as does the process the administration used to strip away doubts expressed by the intelligence community in the NIE summaries.
Mr. Rick interviewed over 100 senior military officials, soldiers of all ranks, from private, to four star generals, made five reporting trips in Iraq, and also talked with a number of officials inside the United States. He read 37,000 pages of documents, and recieved CD Roms from some who served in Iraq with "every memo I sent to Paul Bremmer while I was there." Mr. Rick, in an interview on Meet The Press stated that we are now stuck in Iraq, and estimates we will be unable to get out of Iraq for ten to fifteen years.
BTW, the administration failed to even produce, or ask for the production of a NIE before representatives insisted on one, an act which was previously unprecedented.
Gayle in Md.