February 1, 2017

Near the 10 year anniversary of the Surge in Iraq. I just finished watching a video entitled Iraq Reconsidered: Ten Years After the Surge, published by the Council on Foreign Relations Lessons from History Series Meeting.

On the Panel was General Raymond T. Odierno who was a division commander on the ground in the Iraq war, and Meghan L. O'Sullivan a former deputy national security adviser on Iraq and Two Other unnamed notables.

Ms. O'Sullivan and the General met on the ground in Iraq. The discussion on you tube was about the “Surge” but Ms. O'Sullivan spoke of the early part of the conflict and admittedly had the ear of President Bush for specific advice but tells us that Bush II was clearly making the decisions. There were others on the Panel, but my diatribe here is about Ms. O'Sullivan. A beautiful red headed power broker and strategist.... and the banter between her and General Odierno about debaathification.

Ms. O'Sullivan's recollection of the early part of the war, prior to the surge, I think encouraged a gentleman to ask a question about beginnings of the reconstruction of Iraq. There were a lot of people asking questions, but this one..... this one had, in my mind, real merit. Mr. Charles Ferguson, with Representational Pictures, a filmmaker, asked if the panel felt that if the attempted debaathification of Iraq was a mistake and the incredible incompetence that followed caused the subsequent violence in the region which could have been avoided?

To me a clear insult to her and the panel, and she back-peddled. I (me @adconner) have been contemplating this question for years. Nothing I have read on the subject ever broached debaathification as being a mistake, yet I also had the same question. Maybe I haven't read enough on the subject and yet knowing a little bit about the subject of counter insurgencies and how to formulate them; I anxiously waited for the answer to this question. (On the edge of my seat).

Ms. O'Sullivan himmed and hawed and expressed a lot of ums. She spoke of context not being fully understood. She spoke about how Kurds demanded that the Iraqi military be disbanded, etc. etc. She admitted that a lot of mistakes were made and that the ultimate decision was not hers but did not say whose decision it was.

If you refer to her earlier testimony where she mentions that while she had President Bush's ear, he was clearly making the decisions and this one sounds like his to me.

After the General's open testimony in this video and after defending himself (Not Back-peddling) and his attempts at success in Iraq, I am quite sure that the President's other Generals as well as this one, made sure that Bush was versed in hundreds of years of counter insurgency protocol developed while conducting guerrilla wars across the globe. For the reader, see Boot, Max. “The Savage Wars Of Peace.” Basic Books.

The General clearly contradicted Ms. O'Sullivan.

She stated that nearly everyone in Iraq was negatively affected by the Baath Party and Iraqis were clamoring for the country to be cleansed of Baathists. The General said that everyone who was anyone was a Baathist. Every doctor, every school teacher.... Everyone was a member of the Baath Party. They had to be a Baath party member to have any semblance of a life in Iraq. He went against the grain and refused to participate and protected many good people who just happened to be Baath party members because he needed doctors and teachers to remain in their positions. It was a one party system - It wasn't only the military who were Baathists, it was everyone. And Ultimately he was overruled and told that he did not have the authority to deviate from the plan.... Queue the incredible incompetence...

George W. Bush deviated from standard protocol which would have been to reinstall order from within the ruling or popular party depending on which suits the desires of the U.S.

Why would Bush deviate so far from the norm?

If we look at the reasons we were in the war in the first place and if we take the testimony of General Wesley Clark about deposing 7 nations in 5 years then we can deduce that the U.S. Hegemony was none too concerned about the instability that would be caused by such a deviation in protocol. This line of thinking doesn't help America so much as it shows a globalist agenda at the Helm.

They admit to mistakes in reconstruction in Iraq and another General admits to planning war with 7 Shiite and African nations who were causing the insecurity in Iraq in the wake of the debaathification.

It's a complicated answer that hasn't been adequately explained.

I think it was less planned and more elementary. Bush was embarrassed by the events of 9/11 and said so. He was sucker punched and so was America. He latched onto false intelligence created by an ambitious Iraqi military Baathists eager to see the U.S. Depose Saddam for him.

Saddam and his family had become a scourge in Iraq and there were many defectors in their Army. The false intel was a story that was planted about Yellowcake with French Intel and they made a deal to replace Saddam with him after the invasion.

Bush believed the story about the yellow cake and was embarrassed at not finding any, so he reneged on the deal and historical protocols and decided to exclude all Baathists from reconstruction.

Pancho Villa sucker punched President Wilson to come after him into Mexico. (Villa had invaded a town in Texas)...

“As a captured Villista officer told an Irish correspondent, Villa “said he wanted to make some attempts to get intervention from the gringos before they were ready and while we still had time to become a nation.” If this was Villa’s intent, the attack worked as planned.” Excerpt From: Boot, Max. “The Savage Wars Of Peace.” Basic Books. Ibooks.

Bush got sucker punched again.

It was a huge mistake to break from protocol and not include some Baathists so it's safe to assume that Bush's pride got in the way of being made a fool of again.

It was too much Shame to bear and he took it out on the good Baathists as well as the bad and the ugly.

And they doubled down

Because they knew that instability was going to be caused by the Shiites so they made the decision to depose 7 Countries in 5 years to end their threats to the western world. They had no choice about this. To stabilize without the Baathists meant the destabilization and destruction of Shia influence. Period. And they aren't finished yet.

Except Obama won the election and pulled out early.

This wasn't the First time a U.S. President didn't provide enough resources long enough to ensure success. President Wilson engaged the Red Army in its infancy and had a real chance to stop the Red threat but didn't provide enough troops to the White Russians which troops were requested by our allies who included Japan at the time BTW. It failed and we had to pull out early leaving our Russian supporters to be decimated. This caused a domino effect spawning Red China and eventually Nazi Germany. Just think what the world would be like without WWII.

This is propaganda as to why it's important for the U.S. to be the world's police department... Because we espouse the bill of rights and should export it whenever and wherever we can. (Again Max Boot is Awesome!)

Meghan L. O'Sullivan:

International Affairs, and senior fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and she is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. O'Sullivan served in the Office of Policy Planning at the State Department, where she assisted Colin Powell in developing the smart sanctions policy proposal. In 2003 she volunteered for the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq. She became an assistant to Paul Bremer in the Coalition Provisional Authority. She was Senior Director for Iraq at the United States National Security Council. Her last position at the White House was as the Special Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan. During her time in Iraq, O'Sullivan was involved with many key decisions on the political front, including helping to negotiate the early transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis and assisting the Iraqis in writing their interim constitution. She is remembered for driving herself around Baghdad to meet with Iraqis, and endured some harrowing experiences while in Iraq, including escaping from a terrorist attack by scaling a building ledge ten stories up. She is by all accounts, a ball busting red head. One that we should be grateful is on our side. (Source: Wikipedia)

General Raymond T. Odierno:

He is a retired United States Army general who served as the 38th Chief of Staff of the Army. He commanded United States Joint Forces Command. He served as Commanding General, United States Forces – Iraq and its predecessor, Multi-National Force – Iraq, and he served as Commanding General, III Corps. Odierno is the twelfth American military officer to command at the Division, Corps, and Army level during the same conflict and only the second with this distinction since the Vietnam War. Odierno also served as Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, and was the primary military adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from 3 November 2004 to 1 May 2006. (Source: Wikipedia).

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@adconner