General Shinseki: He told us so.
I got this from page A13 of today’s New York Times (January 12, 2007).
In February 2003, prior to the US invasion of Iraq, General Shinseki (the then US Army Chief of Staff) said the following in testimony before Congress:
“Something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required to stabilize Iraq after an invasion.
We are talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems…
And so it takes a significant ground force presence to maintain a safe and secure environment, to ensure that people are fed, that water is distributed, all the normal responsibilities that go along with a situation like this.”
After these remarks before Congress, the Bush administration led by Donald Rumsfeld first vilified and then marginalized General Shinseki who then faded away into retirement.
Three years and three thousand combat deaths later, General Abizaid, the departing commander of US forces in the Middle East told Congress:
“General Shinseki was right that a greater international force contribution, U.S. force contribution and Iraqi force contribution should have been immediately available after major combat operations.”
General Shinseki has not made any public statements since retirement and certainly isn’t telling anyone “I told you so…” He doesn’t need to.
Years later, with Iraq’s infrastructure still in a shambles, and outright civil war going on between Shia and Sunni, the Bush administration wants to send another 20,000 troops and commit additional $ billions to Iraq reconstruction… Way Too little, way too late.
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