Al, You are splitting hairs and losing sight of the bigger picture.
I am hardly "splitting hairs." Didn't Ritter predict that 120,000 Americans would be fighting "seven million armed elements" of the Iraqi army in urban areas? Didn't Ritter imply that every Iraqi would fight tooth and nail to resist the American "aggressors"?
Fast-forward to today. Most of the militants are in the very small minority that comes nowhere close to seven million. Despite widespread grumblings about the occupation, Iraqis have indeed welcomed Americans as liberators, and most still think getting rid of Saddam is worth tolerating the occupation. The press gives high priority to those still loyal to Saddam or whatever two-bit warlord for the moment (Al Sadr for now), but their resistance is so futile, we had the luxury of declaring a ceasefire on our terms in order to placate Iraqis and the international community. And our troops continue to face daily hit-n-run attacks, but the attackers are easily dispatched 99% of the time.
All you want to do is focus on Ritter's comments about the "neocons," or reapply his mispredictions toward the small minority of militants. That's not prophetic in my book; that's using Clintonesque logic, or more appropriately, Miss Cleo logic.
By the way, even Peter Bergen, who is no fan of the Iraq war, doubts Scott Ritter's integrity:
discuss.washingtonpost.com
Arlington, Va.: Does Scott Ritter have any credibility in the intelligence community? If I remember correctly, his previous insubordination was supposedly the result of his claims that the Iraqis were getting away with murder, whereas now he claims that Iraq threatens no one. From what little I know of his background, he's done more resume stretching in the past than the Feds' anthrax suspect. He impresses me as a media hog. Just wondering if you know if my impression is shared by anyone important?
Peter L. Bergen: You can certainly say that he's taken a turn -- he was the most skeptical about Iraqi claims about not having weapons of mass destruction, and now he's the most sanguine. And his trip was paid for by the Iraqi government.
Tenchusatsu |
