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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (40020)	7/28/2007 12:12:14 PM
From: Dale Baker	Respond to of 541809

The only comment I would offer is the overwhelming tendency for ideologues to assume that their plans will always turn out well. The fact the main neocons behind this plan mostly had zero Middle East experience on the ground just compounded a Washington habit of deciding in advance that everything must work just right, because it's part of the righteous crusade the ideologues came to town to carry out. A metaphor would be some rich guy who buys the best gear in the world to cross the Sahara, doesn't bother to bring along a guide then can't believe it when he's trapped in the middle of nowhere with no way out, after his fancy plan broke down.

To: JohnM who wrote (40020)	7/28/2007 1:30:34 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541809

As I recall, the State Department prepared a lengthy proposal on how to handle a post invasion Iraq. That report was based on extensive experience, including Kosovo, etc. But was rejected by the Pentagon, which had control over the occupation. I am in the middle of reading Peter Galbraith's The End of Iraq right now. He says that State prepared a 15 volume report on how the occupation should be handled. It wasn't exactly "rejected" by Rumsfeld et al, it was simply ignored. Galbraith goes over a lot of the now familiar facts about what went on, and adds many details about the Kurds, who he has dealt with a great deal over the past 2 decades or so and with whom he clearly has a special affinity. Among other tales, he says that Michael Fleisher (yes, Ari's brother) got a job with the CPA for which he had zero experience, and outlined at a press conference, I think it was, the plans to privatize many government functions, end subsidies, sell off the oil fields, and generally follow the IMF-WB prescription for countries that has worked so woefully wherever it has been tried. He said, without any apparent irony, that it would mark "the end of cronyism in Iraq." A remarkable comment coming from a guy who got his job due to nepotism and worked for a group that hired people based on who they voted for in the previous election and their political convictions with no apparent regard for relevant experience.