Last weekend I got to speak to a bunch of my buddies from the Marine Corps up at a Maryland cookout. Bear in mind that these are right wing Republican hawks who now either work at Centcom, USMC headquarters and the Pentagon generally at the Lt. Colonel or Colonel grade. All were critical of Bush Admin. Why?
Rumsfeld ignored the advice of Pentagon generals who advocated "more boots on the ground" to pacify country. All were critical of Rumsefeld's efforts to downsize to a lighter quicker military - great in theory, poor in practice. Great for invasion, poor for occupation.
Again, bear in mind, these guys aren't really free to comment on politics, their mindset is given the mission, what is the best way to prosecute it.
What they said was Admin was forewarned that Iraqis would pursue assymetrical war, i.e., could not hope to compete on battlefield so Iraqis planned on guerilla tactics.
Most of military was asking for deployment size double of current force but was outright rejected by Bush Admin. In other words, 120,000 soldiers not adequate, need 240,000 (one guy I talked to said based on pacification of Japan and Germany after WW11, you actually need approx. 400,000 military personnel).
In short, one of main reasons Iraq is like Viet Nam is because of political ramifications, the executive branch is not prepared to do what it takes to do everything needed as far as means and objectives. Thus the lives of American youth will be wasted needlessly.
Fvck, I am pissed.
Rumsfeld ignored the advice of Pentagon generals who advocated "more boots on the ground" to pacify country. All were critical of Rumsefeld's efforts to downsize to a lighter quicker military - great in theory, poor in practice. Great for invasion, poor for occupation.
Again, bear in mind, these guys aren't really free to comment on politics, their mindset is given the mission, what is the best way to prosecute it.
What they said was Admin was forewarned that Iraqis would pursue assymetrical war, i.e., could not hope to compete on battlefield so Iraqis planned on guerilla tactics.
Most of military was asking for deployment size double of current force but was outright rejected by Bush Admin. In other words, 120,000 soldiers not adequate, need 240,000 (one guy I talked to said based on pacification of Japan and Germany after WW11, you actually need approx. 400,000 military personnel).
In short, one of main reasons Iraq is like Viet Nam is because of political ramifications, the executive branch is not prepared to do what it takes to do everything needed as far as means and objectives. Thus the lives of American youth will be wasted needlessly.
