Pentagon Study: Iraq War A Debacle

Thanks Chris.

The Miami Herald reported Friday that a study released by the Pentagon’s educational institute, the National Defense University, shows that the Iraq war is “a major debacle” and the outcome “is in doubt.” The information in the report is based on interviews with former Pentagon senior defense and intelligence officials who were part of war preparations. Here’s the opening line:

”Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle.”

Other highlights:

• …operations in Iraq have diverted ”manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers” and severely strained the U.S. armed forces.

• “Compounding all of these problems, our efforts [in Iraq] were designed to enhance U.S. national security, but they have become, at least temporarily, an incubator for terrorism and have emboldened Iran to expand its influence throughout the Middle East.”

• “Strong majorities of both Iraqis and Americans favor some sort of U.S. withdrawal. Intelligence analysts, however, remind us that the only thing worse than an Iraq with an American army may be an Iraq after a rapid withdrawal of that army.”

• “‘For many analysts (including this one), Iraq remains a `must win,’ but for many others, despite obvious progress under General David Petraeus and the surge, it now looks like a ‘can’t win.’ ”

• The report also singles out the Bush administration’s national security apparatus and implicitly President Bush and both of his national security advisors, Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley, saying that “senior national security officials exhibited in many instances an imperious attitude, exerting power and pressure where diplomacy and bargaining might have had a better effect.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.