unclewest, We have done a great service to the Iraqi people, and I think Bush has a sincere desire to do that, and amend the wrong done to them in the previous war, and I applaud him for that.
But I think this looting was really allowed to get way out of hand, and it was mostly carelessness on the part of the administration. The civilian leadership should have and could have acted sooner to stop it without reducing our military capability. This kind of inattention to the job has been very costly in this administration IMO, leading to lots of needless clashes, diplomatic fumbles, etc.
There has been time to prepare, but I believe some in the administration were anxious to demonstrate that a smaller group of men could do the job.
We've done a great job guarding oil wells, etc., but I think those are military and technical decisions mainly. The degree of looting and civil unrest that you accept is something the civilians should decide, and I think they were late.
Overall it's been a great war effort, but this is a real and unnecessary humanitarian, and PR, failure.
Doc |
