Article

2008-06-03 Iraq

Michael Yon : An Open Offer to U.S. Senators

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Posted by anonymous5089 2008-06-03 06:09|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top
File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1 The dhimocrats won't take you up on it Yon. They have invested too deeply in the defeat of the United States.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2008-06-03 08:06|| 2008-06-03 08:06|| Front Page Top

#2 if McCain is smart he will do this - bump up the blog presence, and point out jsut how WRONG Obama was on the surge and how disconnected Obama is from the troops.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-06-03 10:43|| 2008-06-03 10:43|| Front Page Top

#3 I don't think that Mr. Yon, whom I respect greatly, has it quite correct historically.

We went into Iraq with as many troops as needed to win the war. The plans for what to do after that certainly didn't work out but I doubt that we didn't have any.

My guess is that the people that were doing the planning were looking at the Japan, Germany occupations as models and missed a couple of big differences.

1) The losers had been totally beaten into submission. We don't fight that way anymore (rightly or wrongly) so the situation on the ground will be different.

2) There was no active enemy left anywhere to foment trouble after the fact. Iraq has all sorts of trouble making neighbors, not to mention that
1) leaves a bunch of them on site.

As was said, "No plan survives contact with the enemy".

Posted by AlanC 2008-06-03 11:24|| 2008-06-03 11:24|| Front Page Top

#4 My guess is that the competent people who made the plans had them upset by Saudi employees at the DoS.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-06-03 11:56|| 2008-06-03 11:56|| Front Page Top

#5 NS I hope you're wrong but fear you're right.

Posted by AlanC 2008-06-03 12:47|| 2008-06-03 12:47|| Front Page Top

#6 Post-invasion we had poor planning for the reconstruction effort - we looked too much at Germany/Japan as predicators and didn't appreciate the M.E. geography wrt Syria/Iran & even Russia selling arms and causing problems in Iraq. I think we also underestimated troop strength, we prolly could've used another division slamming to seal the border up by al qaim. In spite of this the lads performed outstandingly - no surprise to me or anyone else that has the honor of leading them.

Not sure how good the human intel was on the ground prior to either. Payoffs of high ranking sheiks in the tribal system would've been good, especially those running their little fiefdoms around the major cities.

Hindsight $.02.

Posted by Broadhead6 2008-06-03 13:35|| 2008-06-03 13:35|| Front Page Top

#7 Would that be the division our allies in Turkey kept in ships throughout the major combat operations, thankyewverymuch, Colin Powell?

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-06-03 14:24|| 2008-06-03 14:24|| Front Page Top

#8 NS I think you hit that nail on the head.

Re: the human intell.....weren't there all sorts of signs that the Iraqi army itself thought that they had Chem/Bio weapons? Or am I misremembering

Posted by AlanC 2008-06-03 15:01|| 2008-06-03 15:01|| Front Page Top

#9 Would have been nice to have 4th ID go through Turkey - I was actually thinking about another division of USMC leapfrogging north out of Kuwait.

Human intel was weak (due to lack of folks vice lack of effort) as to the eventual breakdown into insurgency - most of us didn't see that part lasting as long as it did. We should've been playing tribe vs tribe earlier and harder.

Posted by Broadhead6 2008-06-03 16:18|| 2008-06-03 16:18|| Front Page Top

#10 I think Broadhead and AlanC have pretty much got it pegged. War sucks and never goes like you expect, but look at it this way - most 'experts' feared/expected we would lose 5-10,000 just during the invasion phase. The whole 5 years has cost a lot more dollars than figured, but less lives. I'll take that trade.

Posted by Glenmore 2008-06-03 18:58|| 2008-06-03 18:58|| Front Page Top

#11 Trade money and time for blood any day, as long as you don't lose in the process.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-06-03 19:03|| 2008-06-03 19:03|| Front Page Top

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