Has anyone read “Cobra II: the Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq” by Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor?
Trainor has a military and journalism background and Gordon, currently with the New York Times, is no bleeding heart of any type, yet these two absolutely skewered Donald Rumsfeld Monday on Charlie Rose’s PBS interview show. Rumsfeld, who loves to pontificate on thinking about “knowns and unknowns” (remember his infamous phrase: “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”), failed miserably in adapting Iraq battle plans once the invasion began and unplanned scenarios appeared, per Gordon and Trainor.
One glaring example these two offered: destroying the Republican Guard and taking Baghdad were the twin military objectives prior to the war starting. But the Republican Guard surprisingly melted away and heading to Baghdad was generally resistance-less.
But along the way, the top military people on the ground in Iraq (not in Dubai or Florida) realized it was the well-armed Fedayeen Saddam that were the cause of any problems encountered. The Fedayeen, not dressed in military uniforms and operating out of pickup trucks, were attacking supply routes and causing public havoc. Nobody was taking the U.S. military head on.
The commander of the Army’s Fifth Corp, General William Wallace (great name), understood this and wanted to slow the dash to Baghdad and deal with the fedayeen. He was admonished (threatened with being fired) and overruled by Rumsfeld whose vision and implementation of a lean, swift, precise and mobile high tech military was supposed to be his crowning achievement. The focus was to remain on eliminating the Republican Guard and arriving in Baghdad. as soon as possible. This decision simply allowed the fedayeen to remain alive in larger numbers, resulting in a larger insurgency, greater chaos, less electrical power, less water, less oil revenues, less…
Also according to Gordon and Trainor, Rumsfeld and CENTCOM commanding general Tommy Franks (who basically sold his soul to the Bush Administration in order to depart from the military as a so-called triumphant hero–my comment) originally planned to quickly draw down to 30,000 troops. Franks wasn’t interested in any sort of nation-building. Controlling Iraq’s borders and ensuring that basic services were supplied were not on his agenda–it was declare victory, retire and go out a winner. Anything else was to be on somone else’s plate.
Gordon and Trainor also said that the continuing mess in Iraq is due to three people joined at the hip: President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Rumsfeld. But they add that Rumsfled could have cared less that it was Iraq–what he was most interested in was employing his newly-minted vision for how the U.S. military should operate. That was the key for him. Iraq was just the showcase opportunity.
The two added that the powers-that-be saw Iraq as a ‘turn-key’ operation–take out Saddam and turn the country over to Ahmed Chalabi and his forces. Obviously, this failed for numerous reasons.
Gordon and Trainor chided the intelligence employed throughout the pre and post-invasion, noting that not one top level Baathist was killed or captured until the war was over. This despite numerous air strikes and the like.
Curiously, the whole issue about ‘freedom fries’ and the geo-political ramifications involving such countries as France and Germany has a different ‘truth’ than what is really known, per Gordon and Trainor. The French actually provided security (at the French embassy in Baghdad) for German agents who were on the ground collecting information in Iraq that was relayed in a roundabout manner to Tommy Franks. The fog of war indeed.
Gordon and Trainor also stated that there was a window of opportunity for success in Iraq but inadequate resources were employed to control Iraq’s border, to protect the oil fields, to upgrade the electrical power and the water supply and to maintain any form of a civil society.
These two did not touch upon this aspect but it’s now apparent why the body and vehicle armor deficiencies happened. There was to be no need for such. It was to be get in, wash our hands of it and get out, with Chalabi and his militia doing whatever dirtywork that would be asked of him by us. How many U.S. soldiers have died or been wounded and maimed because it wasn’t supposed to happen the way it has.
Some things never change.
I guess Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor will now be added to the list of Americans who hate their country. Added by those who do not dare to look at themselves in the mirror for fear of what they might actually see.
