Last night when Bush admitted that a lack of troops was the major reason for the violence and failure in Iraq I thought Bush had finally turned a corner. Then Bush proved he is still in Total Denial by saying that the lack of troops that he admitted was his error were in 2006!
The issue is NOT the troop levels in 2006 and is NOT the lack of 20-30,000 more troops. The reason for the sectarian violence and the foreign terrorists are able to operate in Iraq is because we were unable to prevent these factions from establishing operating starting in early 2003.
The Iraq War had two basic phases- The engagement and defeat of Saddam’s Military and the occupation of a country of 27 Million people where factions existed that did not get along and that had held in check by force in the past.
When Bush sent 130,000 of the 500,000 military needed into Iraq he violated our military doctrine and set the stage for BOTH the violence among Iraqi’s as well as the establishment of foreign terrorists setting up operations in Western Iraq. The Iraq Invasion plans that called for 500,000 troops to CONTROL the factions in Iraq and prevent foreign infiltration are the result of decades of military experience and planning. In recent year that doctrine was termed the Powell Doctrine but in reality was developed by our military over decades.
I am very familiar with this doctrine since I completed training in the Army in areas such as Artillery Officers Basic, Combat Intelligence, Command and General Staff College and finally the Army War College. Bush IGNORED all the past experience and doctrine when he invaded Iraq with less then the Force Levels required to stabilize the country after the Saddam, Government Fell. The Clear and Hold policy that Bush touts today has been the policy. The issue was that we DID NOT have the troops to HOLD the hot spots where the former Saddam loyalists organized. We did not have the troops to prevent the death squads from first forming and then conducting operations. We could not prevent both Sunni and Shiite elements from using the weapons and explosives that were scattered in over 200 Ammo Dumps thought Iraq. We could not prevent al Qaeda elements from moving into western Iraq. We could not secure the infrastructure so the civilian population has electric and water or to develop the oil recourses to provide the needed funding to rebuild and operate Iraq after Saddam.
Over 2,800 of the American deaths and 20,000 of the injuries are because we were UNABLE to prevent the internal and external groups from conducting the attacks we see today. George W. Bush is incapable of looking at the facts and accepting the REAL reason why we have failed to establish order in Iraq!
