From Salon:
May 23, 2003 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- Facing lawmakers critical of the Pentagon strategy for a postwar Iraq, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Thursday that U.S. plans cannot be judged "against a standard of unachievable perfection."
Who's asking for perfection? Yippee, Saddam's gone, and so is law and order, clean water, reliable food supply, hospitals, etc. I remember being promised that this war will make the Iraqis' lives easier. I recall Bush promising the Iraqi people that it would be a smoothe transition, humanitarian aid would follow the tanks in.
He warned that the Iraq "will seem even messier" while its political problems are being worked out.
Well, duh! It also will "be" messier, Wolfie. It already "is" messier.
Wolfowitz defended the Bush administration's efforts and justified its shortcomings in an appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The panel's Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly complained that the administration has been too secretive about its plans and the reconstruction costs.
And since nobody knew the real agenda, nobody noticed that there really wasn't a game plan for reconstruction, which is how this messy business started in the first place. Like Saddam keeping mum about his lack of WMDs, the administration let people believe it had a coherent plan for the aftermath of the war. We was duped!
"I am concerned that the administration's initial stabilization and reconstruction efforts have been inadequate," said Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind. "The planning for peace was much less developed than the planning for war."
It's nice to see a Republican saying this. We can't just let this go, like the election. People have to start waking up.
Laura
4:44:21 PM 
|
