DC Examiner :
The number of top generals willing to admit mistakes in planning for post-Saddam Hussein Iraq is increasing.
The most recent mea culpa came right from the top -- Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing Joint Chiefs chairman, who last week gave his most extensive answer to the question of what he would have done differently in 2003.
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General Pace, Sir, it is obvious from your pathetic testimony that the reading list at Quantico does not include any of Tom Clancy's excellent novels. While the USMC does not use these tools, and learn from them, the enemies of America, foreign and domestic, obviously do. Rule #1 repeated throught these texts is one you and the USMC should take to heart: "Assumption is the Mother of ALL F**kups." And #2 should be the 5Ps: "Perfect Planning Prevents P*ss Poor Performance." How many of your Semper Fi buddies would still be alive had you done so?
Again, the question now is what would Sun Tzu do after 5 years against his maxim that wars are WON or LOST *BEFORE* they start based upon the correct analysis of the situation and having the right plan *BEFORE* unleashing the dogs of war that will be involved?
We clearly had no correct understanding of the situation we would face on the ground over the long term with top down corporatist carbon copy Generals like this.
Zero.
Apparently they just don't cover Sun Tzu at West Point or the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks these days. Wasn't one Robert McNamara Type A driven "tunnel vision" blind perfectionist personality enough in anyone's lifetime?
So what now?
I guess I had better get my old copy of "The Art of War" out if I can find it and dig in.
Our guys all seem to have not gotten the 2500 year old ancient memo so I guess everyone here on HuffPo had better start making an analysis.
Because it looks like it is going to be war without end with no end game in sight whatsoever for a very, very long time to come with hapless careerist Generals coming and going through a revolving door.
Have any of these guys ever heard of General Short or Admiral Kimmel?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Short
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husband_E._Kimmel
These current Generals need some street smarts and fast. They may just be being set up to take the heat and the fall from Commander Guy.
The rest of us had better start reading Sun Tzu since the professional military these days seem to be deficient in the Big Picture in their duties.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War
Here are the elements to ponder. In there has to be an answer to nuance out some kind of plan to change the present incredible stalemate.
1-Planning
2-Going to War
3-Planning the Attack
4-Positioning
5-Force
6-Weakness and Strength
7-Armed Conflict
8-Adapting to the Situation
9-Armed March
10-Field Position
11-Nine Terrain
12-Attacking with Fire
13-Using Spies
Where is a REAL General like a Five Star General George C. Marshall when the nation really needs one?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Marshall
He was a truly great man.
Pace will be replaced by Admiral Mike "Old Salt" Mullen. Mullen has vital Gulf of Tonkin experience
since a a Junior officer he was aboard the USS Blandy in the Tonkin Gulf as part of Operation Sea Dragon in 1968.
Admiral Mullen was against the Surge.
Mullen is a personal friend of Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) so he should get easy Senate approval.
"I assumed when I got there and we plunged their country into total chaos they would welcome me, shower me with flowers, love and kindness but those gosh darn ingrates got all uppity with us so we had to start killin them to win their affection! I just hate when peasants get all uppity just over a little thing as throwing a country into the dark ages. What in SamHill is wrong with those people? Cant they see we are here to steal their oil and in return we bring them chocolates and MRE's! Sometimes you just cant win with these low class immigrants....I mean citizens...I forgot I wasnt in America anymore!"
The hubris is astounding. Let's start with the adage that better a known evil than an unknown one. The Iraqis have witnessed the wholesale dismantling of their society, the privatization of their industries, the wanton destruction of their infrastructure and the abandonment of hope. Apart from the Kurds and American war profiteers, this has benefitted no one. Americans have this undue arrogance in their belief that they alone possess the erudition to construct a polity. I do not deny the US has the capacity to do good in the world but the cowboy mentality plainly evident in its foreign policy and their want to usurp other people's resources has been an Achillean heal in the US quest for global domination. America is at its best when it acts in concert with the international community and when it respects the right of other peoples to both self-determination and economic control of their natural resources. The arrogance in General Pace's comments is not that he cannot see the failure of US policies, it is a failure to comprehend and respect the fundamental human desire for liberty. American loves to tout "freedom" but it fails to understand liberty. Read Franz Fanon for a perspective on the Algerian (and Third World) struggle for independence. The 1950s through 1990s witnessed wars of "liberation" from Ghana and Indochina to East Timor and South Africa. They were wars for LIBERATION, not necessarily for individual freedoms. The struggle for freedom, is ex post haste, one that generally comes later. The right for each society to develop at its own pace as its mores evolve should be self-evident. It will come in the Arab world on its own terms; it can not be imposed from outside.
Pace admitts incompitance by not following strategic rule #1, always plan for all eventualities. The first to fight surely deserve better than this, Semper Fi? I think not.
In other words, nobody knew what the f*ck they were doing.
That's b/c you're an arrogant, ignorant imperialist at heart, Marine Gen. Peter Pace.
Apparently NOBODY, not even the chairman of the join Chiefs, got the read the intelligence services prewar wargaming of the Iraq situation before the invasion. Everything that's transpired since Hussein's overthow was clearly foretold - but the assessment was buried by Cheney.
Dear "Peter Principle" Pace. Does the word DUH mean anything to you?
How could you be so intolerably stupid? If China decided that the US needed a regime change, would it be reasonable for the Communist Chinese to expect the American people to welcome their invading army with open arms?
You are one lame-brained MF.
Iraqis welcomed the liberation, it's the mismanagement that they're opposed to!
Iraqis were operating on the mentality of people subjugated by a totalitarian Nazi-like regime. This kind of slave-like mindset requires being told what to do, when to do it and get paid for it. Cheney admin morons weren't able to deliver it and offered them a freedom to starve and the freedom of total chaos.
Iraqis turned on Americans mainly because of that. Now it's too late.
Translating Peter Pace: "If I could ignore the history and politics of the Middle East, why couldn't the Iraqis?"
So now we are invading,occupying counties, and killing hundred of thousands of their citizens based on assumption?
We now all know what assuming does...it makes an Ass out of Bush and the U.S.(by default).
General Pace, Would you greet a country locked and loaded invading The United States of America as a liberator? I wouldn't. What made you think Iraq would?
No thanks for your 'service'.
It's not a liberation when your goal is permanent occupation.
Sunday, September 16 2007
Duty, Honor, Country 2007--Open Letter to the New Generation of Military Officers
"I contend that should some civilian order you to initiate a nuclear attack on Iran (for example), you are duty-bound to refuse that order. I might also suggest that you should consider whether the circumstances demand that you arrest whoever gave the order as a war criminal." (Dr., Lt. Col. Bob Bowman)
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20070916133125953
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First Posted: 09-18-07 08:47 AM | Updated: 03-28-08 02:45 AM