lennart
19-07-03, 18:05
U.S. Unprepared for Iraq Order Collapse - Wolfowitz
Fri July 18, 2003 11:49 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the United States was unprepared for the collapse of law and order in post war Iraq and the subsequent difficulties there, the Los Angeles Times said on Friday.
Wolfowitz, a leading architect of the war in Iraq, told the paper that no amount of advance planning could have foreseen the collapse in law and order after the U.S. and British military victory.
"The so-called forces of law and order (in Baghdad) just kind of collapsed. There is not a single plan that would have dealt with that," Wolfowitz was quoted as telling the newspaper.
"This is a country that was ruled by a gang of terrorist criminals and they're still around. They're threatening Iraqis and killing Americans," he said.
Wolfowitz was interviewed as part of a lengthy investigation by the L.A. Times into the apparent failure to plan sufficiently for postwar Iraq.
Wolfowitz, who was in Baghdad on Friday, and other senior U.S. officials interviewed, said the speed of the U.S. military victory had created problems in itself, leaving large areas of Iraq under only nominal control by U.S. and British forces.
But Wolfowitz said: "I would not for a moment go back and say 'Gee we should have gone slower so we could have had more forces built up behind us to control areas that we went past."
The Los Angeles Times investigation said serious multi-agency discussions on post-war Iraq started only in February and they had been plagued by false assumptions and infighting among various government departments and agencies.
Jay Garner, the retired army general who was appointed the first civilian administrator of Iraq, said there was little co-ordination between the various departments.
"Each one of them did their own planning and they did it ... with the perspective of their agency. What needed to happen was the horizontal integration of these plans," Garner was quoted as telling the L.A. Times.
Senior officials and experts noted that many of the doomsday predictions over the war had proved wrong, including forecasts for a long and bloody battle for Baghdad, instability across the Arab world, mass oil field fires, a refugee crisis, famine, and the threat of Turkey intervening.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5NLMPPS2I0ZQECRBAEOCF EY?type=politicsNews&storyID=3116691
En ondanks alle waarschuwingen hebben ze nog niets gedaan om het Post-Saddam tijdperk te plannen, ze mogen hun handjes dichtknijpen dat het allemaal nog zo aardig eraan toegaat. De meeste van die voorspellingen kunnen namelijk nog altijd gebeuren en zijn deels ook gaande.
Fri July 18, 2003 11:49 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the United States was unprepared for the collapse of law and order in post war Iraq and the subsequent difficulties there, the Los Angeles Times said on Friday.
Wolfowitz, a leading architect of the war in Iraq, told the paper that no amount of advance planning could have foreseen the collapse in law and order after the U.S. and British military victory.
"The so-called forces of law and order (in Baghdad) just kind of collapsed. There is not a single plan that would have dealt with that," Wolfowitz was quoted as telling the newspaper.
"This is a country that was ruled by a gang of terrorist criminals and they're still around. They're threatening Iraqis and killing Americans," he said.
Wolfowitz was interviewed as part of a lengthy investigation by the L.A. Times into the apparent failure to plan sufficiently for postwar Iraq.
Wolfowitz, who was in Baghdad on Friday, and other senior U.S. officials interviewed, said the speed of the U.S. military victory had created problems in itself, leaving large areas of Iraq under only nominal control by U.S. and British forces.
But Wolfowitz said: "I would not for a moment go back and say 'Gee we should have gone slower so we could have had more forces built up behind us to control areas that we went past."
The Los Angeles Times investigation said serious multi-agency discussions on post-war Iraq started only in February and they had been plagued by false assumptions and infighting among various government departments and agencies.
Jay Garner, the retired army general who was appointed the first civilian administrator of Iraq, said there was little co-ordination between the various departments.
"Each one of them did their own planning and they did it ... with the perspective of their agency. What needed to happen was the horizontal integration of these plans," Garner was quoted as telling the L.A. Times.
Senior officials and experts noted that many of the doomsday predictions over the war had proved wrong, including forecasts for a long and bloody battle for Baghdad, instability across the Arab world, mass oil field fires, a refugee crisis, famine, and the threat of Turkey intervening.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5NLMPPS2I0ZQECRBAEOCF EY?type=politicsNews&storyID=3116691
En ondanks alle waarschuwingen hebben ze nog niets gedaan om het Post-Saddam tijdperk te plannen, ze mogen hun handjes dichtknijpen dat het allemaal nog zo aardig eraan toegaat. De meeste van die voorspellingen kunnen namelijk nog altijd gebeuren en zijn deels ook gaande.