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winterbadgerThanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
robbysmom for pointing me to
http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.back-to-iraq.com/
They also provide links to many other blogs. I'm not going to comment on their content beyond saying that tehy display a wide range of insight, maturity, and perspective.
What I will do is add what I sent back to Lee by way of my own observations. IMO, we're reaping the result of too much liberality and too little conflict. It's no secret that we completely fell down on planning what to do after the invasion, but we've been rebuilding infrastructure and creating stuff that wasn't there *before* the war. Polls seem to suggest that most people don't want the Americans there, but think they're better off than before the war started. I've talked to guys who were over there or who friends or family serving there, and the impression I get is that we didn't prosecute the counterinsurgency campaign nearly well enough, both form the point of view of working within cultural expectations but also being absolutely ruthless when it came to serious opposition. As a result, thigns have been let slide because they seemed to difficult to sort out, and now they're twice as hard to deal with. Sadr is one example. We should have made a stand and disarmed his milita months ago and let the Iraqi police arrest him. Noe he's too powerful to take down without a prolonged battle, which is going to hurt our position much more than it already has been. And it's all having to be done by forces that have been in place only a short time and have far less rapport with local leaders than the ones that left this winter (who, admittedly, were teh guys who weren't doing anything).
We should never have brought Chalabi back. We should never have installed an interim government that had so few ties to non-expat Iraqis. We should have made infrastructure security an immediate prioirty when the Iraqi army started melting away. We should never have fired all the rank and file army officers and soldiers until we had work for them to do. We should have done (and should be doing) a much better job of public relations.
We should never have invaded without a UN mandate and Arab allies...
robbysmom for pointing me to http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.back-to-iraq.com/
They also provide links to many other blogs. I'm not going to comment on their content beyond saying that tehy display a wide range of insight, maturity, and perspective.
What I will do is add what I sent back to Lee by way of my own observations. IMO, we're reaping the result of too much liberality and too little conflict. It's no secret that we completely fell down on planning what to do after the invasion, but we've been rebuilding infrastructure and creating stuff that wasn't there *before* the war. Polls seem to suggest that most people don't want the Americans there, but think they're better off than before the war started. I've talked to guys who were over there or who friends or family serving there, and the impression I get is that we didn't prosecute the counterinsurgency campaign nearly well enough, both form the point of view of working within cultural expectations but also being absolutely ruthless when it came to serious opposition. As a result, thigns have been let slide because they seemed to difficult to sort out, and now they're twice as hard to deal with. Sadr is one example. We should have made a stand and disarmed his milita months ago and let the Iraqi police arrest him. Noe he's too powerful to take down without a prolonged battle, which is going to hurt our position much more than it already has been. And it's all having to be done by forces that have been in place only a short time and have far less rapport with local leaders than the ones that left this winter (who, admittedly, were teh guys who weren't doing anything).
We should never have brought Chalabi back. We should never have installed an interim government that had so few ties to non-expat Iraqis. We should have made infrastructure security an immediate prioirty when the Iraqi army started melting away. We should never have fired all the rank and file army officers and soldiers until we had work for them to do. We should have done (and should be doing) a much better job of public relations.
We should never have invaded without a UN mandate and Arab allies...
