Comments on: Code Pink Gets Handled

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:57:54 +0000

Just to add, General John Abizaid’s exact words from that Washington meeting were; “there are no organized Iraqi military units left”.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:50:58 +0000

“Garner and Col Paul Hughes had already been in contact with Iraqi officers who said they could reconstitute tens of thousands of troops within weeks.” -Doug

Actually, this claim had been debunked. Although as you have said that executive decisions had already been made to retain some elements from the old army before the invasion had occured, the previous army was not a functioning coherent force after the fall of Baghdad as General John Abizaid had said in a meeting with Washington Officials.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:51:53 +0000

Actually, according to then Bremer advisor Walther Slocombe, there was no intact security force to dissolve. Also, it did not dissolve the entire army. A few members from the former army got to stay in the army that was being developed with severance pay. The number of members from the army which served under Saddam Hussein who were allowed to stay in the new army were approximately equivilant to about 3 divisions.

By: sue05

sue05 — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:24:10 +0000

Again Doug, hindsight is always 20/20 and you can Monday morning quarterback all you want, the war is winding down, a decided victory for the US, the Iraqis and the world at large. Were mistakes made? Of course there were, no one here has ever said there weren’t. But again, we learned from the mistakes, made the changes in strategy, the ROE’s were changed and the hands of our Military were untied and they were ALLOWED to do their job which they weren’t allowed to do for quite sometime. A lot of what happens on the ground is dictated directly by the self important, miserable failure lawyers who want to make up the rules because they think they know everything. However they need to butt the heck out and let the guys do their jobs. The new ROE’s coming into effect in January 2009 will once again severely tie the hands of our military. But what do the lawyers care, they sit on their butts in Washington, in safety while the ridiculous rules they impose have to be carried out by those who put their life on the line every day in a war zone. Good Gosh I feel bad for the lawyers they may suffer a fatal paper cut shuffling all that paper around their desks!

By: MIckey

MIckey — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:40:22 +0000

CF *********************** give it a rest……….

By: Critical Facts

Critical Facts — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:17:20 +0000

Doug:

Thanks for keeping folks here honest. We have too many folks as it is trying to rewrite history to make Bush/Cheney look other than the miserable failures they are.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:06:16 +0000

Actually, the orders were thought a bad idea at the time by many, including Tommy Franks and Jay Garner (who Bremer was replacing) who begged him to reconsider. Garner and Col Paul Hughes had already been in contact with Iraqi officers who said they could reconstitute tens of thousands of troops within weeks. Furthermore, the orders contradicted National Security Council decisions on March 10 & 12 before the invasion, where the NSC (Bush, Cheney, etc.) unanimously decided that undesirable Baathists would be weeded out (instead of firing all of them) and that only the Republican Guard would be disbanded, and regular soldiers vetted and returned to duty. No one has ever come forth claiming to have originated the orders.

By: CJ

CJ — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:51:04 +0000

Doug, when you were in Iraq, what were….oh wait, sorry. You weren’t there. When the Iraqi military was “dissolved” there was no military to dissolve. As we trounced north across the country, the roads and defenses were LITTERED with Iraqi Army uniforms. Baghdad was the greenest place in Iraq because of all the uniformed strewn all over the place.

Both the police and military fled for fear of being killed by their own people for enforcing Saddam’s rule. So, we did not “fire” anyone. They quit.

By: sue05

sue05 — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:12:42 +0000

Doug, I believe those orders were given because at that time, it wasn’t thought that they could be trusted. As it stands now, we are still weeding out the “bad seeds” from those who have rejoined the IA and IP. The Baath party was highly corrupted and therefore thought to be untrustworthy. Not a bad assumption.

Though of course for you, who knows everything, now that its all said and done, you would have done things differently, as I’m sure our Generals and the President himself had he known then what he knows now. But as always Doug, hindsight is 20/20 and we don’t have the luxury of that knowledge when things are started.

So your childish finger pointing and trying to embarrass Ryan for his statement, which isn’t incorrect by the way, just shows your lack of respect and knowledge of the situation.

Like it or not, we went to war. War is messy, war is unpredictable, the enemy is not always known and the rules of engagement change on a dime. Get over it.

By: CJ

CJ — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:23:57 +0000

Here’s an expected non-reply.