2008 Woodie Awards
Troops Mired in Mideast Folly of 'War President'
J.J. Thermos
Issue date: 10/13/04 Section: Opinions
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President Bush and loyal sidekick Dick Cheney have been pretending that all is going well in Iraq while the evidence indicates that the situation there is one of escalating violence and chaos.
Dubya and the veep know better: A national intelligence report in July predicted anarchy and a civil war befalling beleaguered Iraq in the near future.
To date at least 1,070 U.S. troops have died and 7,700 have been wounded fighting the administration's vainglorious campaign: to install Iraq as America's center of operations in the Middle East, replacing unreliable Saudi Arabia.
The self-proclaimed "war president," Bush ignored the expertise of senior military leaders, listening instead to White House neoconservatives such as Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz.
In the lead-up to the war, Rumsfeld excluded Army Gen. John Abizaid, who directed operations in Afghanistan, from planning sessions.
Also prior to the invasion, Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki told the Senate Armed Services Committee that several hundred thousand soldiers would be required to ensure security in postwar Iraq.
Wolfowitz brushed off that prediction, calling it "quite outlandish" before the House Budget Committee two days later. Shinseki was summarily retired by the administration soon thereafter.
Currently there are 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, the most we have had deployed there.
William Odom, a retired general and former member of the National Security Council, reflects growing disillusionment within upper ranks of the military for Bush and his military strategy: "It was never in our interest to go into Iraq," he recently told Sidney Blumenthal, of The Guardian.
Odom claimed all of Bush's reasons for going to war were "phony" and the prospect of democracy in Iraq is "zero." Legitimacy in Iraqi politics "is going to be tied to expelling us. Wisdom in military affairs dictates withdrawal in this situation," the general stated.
Dubya and the veep know better: A national intelligence report in July predicted anarchy and a civil war befalling beleaguered Iraq in the near future.
To date at least 1,070 U.S. troops have died and 7,700 have been wounded fighting the administration's vainglorious campaign: to install Iraq as America's center of operations in the Middle East, replacing unreliable Saudi Arabia.
The self-proclaimed "war president," Bush ignored the expertise of senior military leaders, listening instead to White House neoconservatives such as Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz.
In the lead-up to the war, Rumsfeld excluded Army Gen. John Abizaid, who directed operations in Afghanistan, from planning sessions.
Also prior to the invasion, Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki told the Senate Armed Services Committee that several hundred thousand soldiers would be required to ensure security in postwar Iraq.
Wolfowitz brushed off that prediction, calling it "quite outlandish" before the House Budget Committee two days later. Shinseki was summarily retired by the administration soon thereafter.
Currently there are 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, the most we have had deployed there.
William Odom, a retired general and former member of the National Security Council, reflects growing disillusionment within upper ranks of the military for Bush and his military strategy: "It was never in our interest to go into Iraq," he recently told Sidney Blumenthal, of The Guardian.
Odom claimed all of Bush's reasons for going to war were "phony" and the prospect of democracy in Iraq is "zero." Legitimacy in Iraqi politics "is going to be tied to expelling us. Wisdom in military affairs dictates withdrawal in this situation," the general stated.