...Paul Wolfowitz appeared before the House Budget Committee. He began working through his prepared statement about the Pentagon's budget request and then asked permission to "digress for a moment" and respond to recent commentary, "some of it quite outlandish, about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq." Everyone knew he meant Shinseki's remarks.
"I am reluctant to try to predict anything about what the cost of a possible conflict in Iraq would be," Wolfowitz said, "or what the possible cost of reconstructing and stabilizing that country afterwards might be." This was more than reluctance--it was the Administration's consistent policy before the war. "But some of the higher-end predictions that we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq, are wildly off the mark."
This was as direct a rebuke of a military leader by his civilian superior as the United States had seen in fifty years. Wolfowitz offered a variety of incidental reasons why his views were so different from those he alluded to: "I would expect that even countries like France will have a strong interest in assisting Iraq's reconstruction," and "We can't be sure that the Iraqi people will welcome us as liberators ... [but] I am reasonably certain that they will greet us as liberators, and that will help us to keep requirements down." His fundamental point was this: "It's hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army. Hard to imagine."
Wow. I always defended Wolfowitz as the more mild of the Bushies. But, o man, I can now see why everyone thinks he was an asshole. How do you get to be so wrong about so much and still have a reputation? How does anyone take you seriously anymore?
Oh yeah, I forgot.
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This is the first pick I wholeheartedly embrace. This guy tried to tell everyone the straight dope and Shinseki was retired in summer of 2003. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz pointedly did not attend his retirement ceremony. He wrote an 8 page letter to Rumsfeld that has never been published, explaining to him that the military is made up of people, not high concept buzz words.
ReplyDeleteHe will be a credit to our veterans and to our country. Finally, Obama got it right. Deal me few more like this an I may become a believer....well lets not get crazy!
...and this blog will be doomed.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I am scanning the Weekly Standard (the former voice of Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz) for their take. So far, radio silence.