...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Wednesday, June 11, 2003
      ( 10:08 AM )
 
Mission Accomplished ...What Mission?

Since Baghdad fell on April 9, 39 US soldiers have been killed by enemies and 41 killed in accidents. In a shocking acknowledgment of mis-strategy:

The Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, yesterday
acknowledged that the failure to capture or account
for Saddam may be fostering guerilla-style attacks
on US forces.

Duh. (I don't know how else to respond to that).

Only a month ago our fine specimen of a president landed on an aircraft carrier and announced in front of a gigantic banner that read MISSION ACCOMPLISHED that we had achieved what we set out to do and thus 9/11 was avenged (yes, yes, I know Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but don't tell that to BushCo). And yet, here we are, two months following the accomplishment of the mission and in the last two weeks we've averaged about 1 soldier killed a day. Not only is it becoming clearer by the minute that the pretense for going into this war was based on lies and false evidence, we're also getting the picture that BushCo had no real strategy set out for what happened AFTER the bombs stopped dropping. I don't know what happened with the logistics planning in the Pentagon in terms of the post-war occupation, but either Rumsfeld didn't listen to experienced advisors on the matter, or there simply wasn't a plan.

Just a little bit of history might have aided in at least establishing some kind of parameters for how to operate the occupation. Lessons about who became the legitimate targets when the Brits occupied Northern Ireland, the Israelis occupied Palestine, etc. might have proven useful tools in shaping at least some kind of strategy. The new slogan "Bush Lied, People Died" is becoming even more apt after the war, as young American soldiers continue being shot down in the streets of a country filled with people that aren't going to make it easy for Bush to become Emperor of the Earth.




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