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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Calladine who wrote (27206)	10/5/2004 4:38:53 PM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Jon Lee Anderson (new book out) says that his Baathist bureaucrat friend was looking forward to having Saddam gone. He thought the country would pick up from there and improve itself. Oooops! Bremer came through, disbanded the army and pushed all the Baathists out on a permanent basis regardless of who they were or what they had or had not done. Sounds good but the Baathists also were professionals who ran the country. Anderson's friend's house was broken into by US troops, totally sacked and his friend was put into prison (including Abu Ghraib) for 9 months and then released because there was no (or ever had been) reason to hold him. Now this fiftyish guy who was sick of Saddam and wanted to rebuild his country is penniless and has fled to Jordan looking for work. Anderson said that the professional class is fleeing the country and they are bewildered at what the Americans have done. As with other journalists he points to the original looting and Rumsfelds stupid-stupid-stupid (my words) lack of interest in basic security. Gee, can you imagine if the army had stayed in place and the Baathists were still there but HAD TO HOLD ELECTIONS? Keep the structure in place while changing the players over time? Gee, it is bewildering how incompetent Bush/Rummy/Rice/Powell/Wolfwitz are. A bunch of well-educated grad students would have done a better job.