Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace admitted that some mistakes were made in Iraq and took full responsibility for them, something other retired Generals who like to spout off at the mouth will not do. I find it hard to take a general seriously who has retired and THEN starts to complain. These are guys in positions of extreme responsibility that could have done something about it while in uniform. Instead, they blame everyone else but themselves. General Pace is different.

“One of the mistakes I made in my assumptions going in was that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi army would welcome liberation, that the Iraqi army, given the opportunity, would stand together for the Iraqi people and be available to them to help serve the new nation,” said Pace, who will leave the chairman’s job on Oct. 1. “If I knew that the Iraqi army was not going to be available, then I probably would have made a different recommendation about the total size force going in.”

Generals (and all commanders) are only as good as the information they have upon which they can make sound judgments and decisions. At the time of the invasion, all intelligence had pointed to a swift invasion and a quick exit because the people were going to welcome us with open arms. This was either an intelligence failure on the part of the military and CIA or an elaborate plan by the Hussein regime in advance. I think a little of both. Hind sight is always 20/20 and Pace wished he had it saying, “you say you wish you knew, but you didn’t know on the way in.”

Even though this is an admitted mistake, I do not think it was necessarily an avoidable mistake. Even though Gen Pace knows mistakes were made, he still believes that going into Iraq was the right thing to do without a doubt. I know it was the right thing to do as well and I’m just an E-7 NCO.

Combat strategy is adopted based on wargaming and assumptions. One side can never really KNOW what the other side will do and must try to pretend they do. Assumptions are the basis of every campaign. The assumptions of the Japanese in attacking Pearl Harbor were that the United States would be severely crippled and unable to respond to their attack. Those assumptions proved wrong as we ended up kicking their asses and then went on to finish off the rest of the bad apples. They thought our resolve was weak and they found out the hard way.

The difference in our incorrect assumptions is that we CAN still win, but because of the setbacks we must reset. Our strategy is constantly evolving because the enemy we face does not use established TTP (tactics, techniques, and procedures). They don’t belong to a state so they do not have the level of bureaucracy to work through in trying new things. They do not need to worry about the approval of voters or their elected officials to execute a campaign and try new things. The terrorists act independently using multiple methods and procedures. We are quick to adapt, but still have to deal with the unjust threats and negative criticisms from within our own country. People are actively fighting us at home and abroad. There are groups of individuals doing what they can to shut down recruiting offices and create their own personal rap sheets to hang on their mantle.

Gen Pace, like Petraeus, is an honest man who tells it like it is. It is important that as he admits his mistakes he is also quick to point out that those mistakes do not mitigate the necessity of going into Iraq.

He has not wavered in his belief that the U.S. made the right call by invading Iraq.

Asked whether he still stands by comments he made several years ago when he said he had no doubts about the move, Pace did not hesitate.

“I absolutely do. Absolutely do. Absolutely do,” he said.