Letters to the Editor
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@ Jebbie
Arne, I don't believe there is too awfully much which I agree with pertaining to what Corporal Anon has written.
I was pointing out for the brave "Anonymous" that he was agreeing with you, right after criticising you:
[Jebbie]: "The problem isn't the size of our military. The problem is that our military was given a task it wasn't designed for, wasn't prepared for, and shouldn't have been ordered to perform."
[anonymous]: Sorry but you are incorrect. The military IS designed for war...that IS our primary mission. What we are NOT designed for is meals on wheels, maintaining a police state or anything else. War is our job.
You pointed out something I tend to agree with; while a military might be trained and expected to do post-combat operations, and may manage to do a reasonable job, ours was neither trained nor expected to do this. The stupendously stoopid and incompetent CPA was supposed to do the "mop-up", Phase IV, operations except perhaps that of MPs. But even the MPs we had tended (for the most part) to be reserve units of less quality and training than regular army, and the MP commanders there that did have an idea of the problems (e.g., Col. Teddy Spain) were seriously shortchanged on troops and weren't even told "who is in charge here" when they asked because of infighting between Bremer and Sanchez.
The brave "anonymous" said basically the very same thing as you said right after you, but only after telling you that what you said was "incorrect".
The horrible mish-mash of lack of any planning for Phase IV should be enough to cause anyone associated with this monumental SNAFU to be cashiered out including the Deciderator-In-Chief ... but instead we're stuck with Dumbya, and he gave Preznitential Medals of Freedom to the three primary culprits (outside himself, Cheney, and Rummy) for the whole fiasco (Tenet, Bremer, and Franks; talk about praise for the guilty).
This on top of the monumental stoopidity of going to war in the first place (Tenet's real failing).
So, sorry to say you "agree" with "anonymous", so if you'd like, I'll put it as him agreeing with you. But that isn't obviously sufficient to make him a wise person.
Is that clearer?
Cheers,