A harsh assessment from the National Defense University:
The war in Iraq has become “a major debacle” and the outcome “is in doubt” despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon’s premier military educational institute.
The report released by the National Defense University raises fresh doubts about President Bush’s projections of a U.S. victory in Iraq just a week after Bush announced that he was suspending U.S. troop reductions.
The report carries considerable weight because it was written by Joseph Collins, a former senior Pentagon official, and was based in part on interviews with other former senior defense and intelligence officials who played roles in prewar preparations.
It was published by the university’s National Institute for Strategic Studies, a Defense Department research center.
“Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle,” says the report’s opening line.
Enough about the Iraq thing. Does Joseph Collins wear flag lapel pins? And while we are at it, place your bets on who will be the first to call the National Defense University a rogue leftist outfit that just has BDS.
In all seriousness, I know what the response will be, and it will probably come from the Weekly Standard or another arm of the neo-con wing of the GOP- this is all pushback from the bloated fiefdoms within the Pentagon who wish to discredit Rumsfeld’s leaner military approach. Or something like that. And, in fairness, there is some element of that in the report (PDF). That doesn’t take away from the overall assessment, though, and that is that Iraq is and will most likely remain a disaster (pay special attention to the Errors in decisionmaking and execution starting on page 16).
*** Update ***
Joe Collins says the report is being mis-characterized. Again, I suggest you read it for yourself (.pdf), as it is not very long.
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