IRAQ IIO
Summary here.
“Catapulting the propaganda” is bad enough, Believing the bpropaganda, and using it a a basis for policy formulation, is inexcusable. As is an officer corps cowed enough and so bereft of conscience as to put career over country.
…when U.S. forces have cracked down in one place, Iraqi insurgents and foreign terrorists have popped up in another. Some towns have been pacified multiple times, only to return to chaos as soon as the Americans reduced troop numbers. In cities such as Baghdad, Kirkuk, Samarra and Ramadi, bloodshed ebbs and flows, but security is never a given.
[snip]
“This is exactly what happens when there aren’t enough troops: You extend people and you deplete your theater reserve,” said an American defense official in Iraq, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
[snip]
Almost no high-ranking, active-duty U.S. officers are willing to discuss their concerns about troop levels publicly, for fear of being reprimanded or having their careers cut short. There’s an unwritten understanding, they said, that the Bush administration doesn’t want to hear about the need for more troops.
[snip]
“They’re not allowed to ask for more troops,” the U.S. defense official in Iraq said. “If you say something you’re gone, you’re relieved, you’re not in the Army anymore.”
A number of senior military officials in the United States agreed. “There’s an overall feeling that if you ask for more you’re going to get hammered,” one said. Article
