The_cavalierman
October-4th-2007, 09:21 PM
In order to fairly grade Iraq you must break down the mission into three separate but equally important parts.
The Military Mission:
Find the WMDs - Partially Successful (we found our own WMDs)
Secure Iraqi Oil fields - Successful
Capture or Kill Saddam and Sons - Successful
Provide enough security to complete civil and diplomatic missions - Unsuccessful
First off the troops are doing an excellent job despite piss poor leadership from Washington. The military mission in Iraq has been highly successful despite the civilian leadership's blunders. Three our of 4 of the priority objectives have been accomplished. I must clarify that their were WMDs found in Iraq but the tragic irony is that it was the leftover chemicals that the Reagan/Bush administration supplied Saddam via the CIA in his war against Iran. This was the same chemicals that Saddam later used on the Khurds.
American troops are nothing more than targets as they try to do the job of securing Iraq that the Iraqis should be doing. They are also the targets of Iranian insurgents with dramatically improved IEDs. The Al quaeda element in Iraq has been all but eliminated but contrary to republican spin this was not due to anything the US did. It was due to the fact that the Sunnis decided to rejoin the Iraq coalition government for US protection from Shia death squads. The Sunnis hired, hid and equipped Al Queda but that relationship only inspired Iran to arm the Shia death squads.
The bottom line is the American troops should have dramatically scaled back their presence after Saddam was captured. The military is now being asked to police Iraq which is a terminally bad idea. Had the Iraqi army not been disbanded the lives of many American soldiers would have been saved.
Grades:
(A+) The troops for making the best out of a crappy situation
(D-) Military commanders for allowing the Bush administration make political decisions that compromised the strategic and tactical objectives in Iraq.
(F) The Commander in Chief - Military historians at the Army War college, West Point and the Center for Military History are already including Bush in the conversations of the worst wartime president ever. When the majority military historians (who are not liberals) turn against you before your term is done...you must really suck.
The Civil Mission:
Restore utilities - failed
Restore schools/universities - successful
Restore markets - partially successful
Create jobs/ecomomy/business - failed
Iraq still has massive blackouts and most residents get 1-2 hours of electricity a day. The schools are back in session for the most part but that is a drastic improvement over 2003. The markets are experiencing good progress but the fact that they keep getting blown up keeps that objective from receiving a passing grade. Massive US contractor mismanagement and criminal activity has left way too many Iraqis unemployed thus angry and free to blow things up. Some small Iraqi businesses are successful but not enough to get the economy off the ground.
The major failures of this mission can be directly linked to the piss poor leadership of the whitehouse. They disbanded the Iraqi Army which would have been the security force we needed. They fired all of the Sunni civil servants that could have kept the power on and the water going.
Grades:
(A+) Civil affairs soldiers
(D-) American civil servants and civilian contractors in Iraq
(F) Bush Administration
The Diplomatic Mission:
This is the area of the most dramatic failures of the Whitehouse. Now that the military mission in Iraq is effectively over the diplomatic mission should be in full force. Condaleeza Rice is a joke and Cheney had to be called in to do her job a few months ago.
Due to the lack of diplomacy even our own allies have been withdrawing from the coalition of the willing. The failure of diplomacy also means that our military must stay in Iraq and continue to be targets.
Grades:
(B) The troops - they are the real diplomats and despite a few setbacks by some idiots (Abu Grhaib/Gitmo) they have repesented the US with honor.
(F-) The Bush Administration - Simply put they do not believe in diplomacy and that will be the failure that keeps the troops in Iraq longer and destroys the overall mission
(F-) The State Department - By far the most catastrophic failure of the three missions
Overall the troops are doing a great job under circumstances made more difficult by their own leadership. The external factors like the Whitehouse, State Department along with bad/cheating contractors have failed to step up as the military mission was coming to an end. Not to mention the horrible decisions made following the invasion to disband the Iraqi Army and fire all the Sunnis that could have kept the current infastructure running. Those two decision alone proved to set the Iraq mission back years.
The military tried to train an iraqi security force which ultimately failed after years of dumping money, time and massive resources into that effort. They also tried to bring in American contractors to rebuild Iraq's infastructure and after four years the average Iraq still only gets 1-2 hours of electricity per day if they are lucky and the water is nasty. The fraud, waste and abuse by these contractors (with no bid contracts) is downright criminal.
Oh yeah...there is still 9 billion dollars in tax payer money still unaccounted for in Iraq. Given those factors the overall grade for the complete Iraq mission is a D. The only thing that keeps it from being an F is the fact that our troops are doing such a marvelous job even though their civilian leadership has let them down at virtually every turn.
With all factors considered how would you grade the mission in Iraq?
The Military Mission:
Find the WMDs - Partially Successful (we found our own WMDs)
Secure Iraqi Oil fields - Successful
Capture or Kill Saddam and Sons - Successful
Provide enough security to complete civil and diplomatic missions - Unsuccessful
First off the troops are doing an excellent job despite piss poor leadership from Washington. The military mission in Iraq has been highly successful despite the civilian leadership's blunders. Three our of 4 of the priority objectives have been accomplished. I must clarify that their were WMDs found in Iraq but the tragic irony is that it was the leftover chemicals that the Reagan/Bush administration supplied Saddam via the CIA in his war against Iran. This was the same chemicals that Saddam later used on the Khurds.
American troops are nothing more than targets as they try to do the job of securing Iraq that the Iraqis should be doing. They are also the targets of Iranian insurgents with dramatically improved IEDs. The Al quaeda element in Iraq has been all but eliminated but contrary to republican spin this was not due to anything the US did. It was due to the fact that the Sunnis decided to rejoin the Iraq coalition government for US protection from Shia death squads. The Sunnis hired, hid and equipped Al Queda but that relationship only inspired Iran to arm the Shia death squads.
The bottom line is the American troops should have dramatically scaled back their presence after Saddam was captured. The military is now being asked to police Iraq which is a terminally bad idea. Had the Iraqi army not been disbanded the lives of many American soldiers would have been saved.
Grades:
(A+) The troops for making the best out of a crappy situation
(D-) Military commanders for allowing the Bush administration make political decisions that compromised the strategic and tactical objectives in Iraq.
(F) The Commander in Chief - Military historians at the Army War college, West Point and the Center for Military History are already including Bush in the conversations of the worst wartime president ever. When the majority military historians (who are not liberals) turn against you before your term is done...you must really suck.
The Civil Mission:
Restore utilities - failed
Restore schools/universities - successful
Restore markets - partially successful
Create jobs/ecomomy/business - failed
Iraq still has massive blackouts and most residents get 1-2 hours of electricity a day. The schools are back in session for the most part but that is a drastic improvement over 2003. The markets are experiencing good progress but the fact that they keep getting blown up keeps that objective from receiving a passing grade. Massive US contractor mismanagement and criminal activity has left way too many Iraqis unemployed thus angry and free to blow things up. Some small Iraqi businesses are successful but not enough to get the economy off the ground.
The major failures of this mission can be directly linked to the piss poor leadership of the whitehouse. They disbanded the Iraqi Army which would have been the security force we needed. They fired all of the Sunni civil servants that could have kept the power on and the water going.
Grades:
(A+) Civil affairs soldiers
(D-) American civil servants and civilian contractors in Iraq
(F) Bush Administration
The Diplomatic Mission:
This is the area of the most dramatic failures of the Whitehouse. Now that the military mission in Iraq is effectively over the diplomatic mission should be in full force. Condaleeza Rice is a joke and Cheney had to be called in to do her job a few months ago.
Due to the lack of diplomacy even our own allies have been withdrawing from the coalition of the willing. The failure of diplomacy also means that our military must stay in Iraq and continue to be targets.
Grades:
(B) The troops - they are the real diplomats and despite a few setbacks by some idiots (Abu Grhaib/Gitmo) they have repesented the US with honor.
(F-) The Bush Administration - Simply put they do not believe in diplomacy and that will be the failure that keeps the troops in Iraq longer and destroys the overall mission
(F-) The State Department - By far the most catastrophic failure of the three missions
Overall the troops are doing a great job under circumstances made more difficult by their own leadership. The external factors like the Whitehouse, State Department along with bad/cheating contractors have failed to step up as the military mission was coming to an end. Not to mention the horrible decisions made following the invasion to disband the Iraqi Army and fire all the Sunnis that could have kept the current infastructure running. Those two decision alone proved to set the Iraq mission back years.
The military tried to train an iraqi security force which ultimately failed after years of dumping money, time and massive resources into that effort. They also tried to bring in American contractors to rebuild Iraq's infastructure and after four years the average Iraq still only gets 1-2 hours of electricity per day if they are lucky and the water is nasty. The fraud, waste and abuse by these contractors (with no bid contracts) is downright criminal.
Oh yeah...there is still 9 billion dollars in tax payer money still unaccounted for in Iraq. Given those factors the overall grade for the complete Iraq mission is a D. The only thing that keeps it from being an F is the fact that our troops are doing such a marvelous job even though their civilian leadership has let them down at virtually every turn.
With all factors considered how would you grade the mission in Iraq?