Recently there have been arguements on this list that things are really going surprisingly well in Iraq, and that Democratic criticism is partisian and unsubstantiated. Not knowing the particulars of what is now going on in Iraq, it was hard for me to raise a substantial arguement against this.
However, yesterday, the chair of the Senate foreign relations committee raised a scathing attack on the Administrations planning for post war Iraq. Quoting an AP article on Lugar's position: <begin quote> Lugar recently wrote a newspaper opinion piece that said the administration's postwar planning was so poor that Americans are contending in Iraq "with ethnic and religious rivalries; a long-repressed people; a war-damaged infrastructure already decaying from years of neglect and corruption; a lack of Iraqi democratic experience; and a host of extreme clerics, looters, gangsters and warlords-in-waiting." Asked Sunday how the planning was lacking, Lugar replied: "I think a thorough misunderstanding of how complex the politics of Iraq anre and continue to be; an inability to understand the decapitation theory--that is, getting rid of the top types while the workers continue--wasn't going to work" he said. "In other words, the basic assumptions, whoever was making them, att State, at (the National Security Council), at Defense, simply were inadaquate to begin with" <end quote> That is very strong criticism from the Republican chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. I have a hard time believing that it is based on anything but his best assessment of the situation, because as a Republican, he would not gain partisan advantage by criticizing the White House. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
