A Year in Iraq- A Lifetime of Cowardice

Atrios calls our attention the today's review of Paul Bremer's new book, "My Year in Iraq," in today's NYTimes. Desert Sturm:

The most startling moment in "My Year in Iraq," L. Paul Bremer III's memoir from his days as the head of the American occupation, comes near the end, when violent uprisings were sweeping most of the central and southern parts of the country in May 2004. With the whole American enterprise verging on collapse, Bremer decided to secretly ask the Pentagon for tens of thousands of additional American troops — a request that, as the rest of his book makes clear, was taboo in the White House and Pentagon.

Bremer turned to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top American commander in Iraq, and asked him what he would do with two more divisions, as many as 40,000 more troops. General Sanchez did not hesitate to answer. "I'd control Baghdad," he said. Bremer then mentioned some other uses for the soldiers, like securing Iraq's borders and protecting its infrastructure, to which General Sanchez replied: "Got those spare troops handy, sir?"

~snip~

Thanks to Bremer's book, we now know he harbored doubts of his own. He knew, or at least strongly suspected, that the fledging Iraqi security forces weren't up to the job. He just didn't say so in public.

Bremer's concern reflected a broader disquiet: "Coalition forces were spread too thin on the ground," he writes. "During my morning intelligence briefings, I would sometimes picture an understrength fire crew racing from one blaze to another."

As Atrios notes, this is hardly a profile in courage. Bremer knew things were going from bad to totally hellish, and kept quiet. And he wasn't alone. He still isn't. As Atrios notes, the entire media has been complicit in keeping the "tinkerbell" strategy alive.

I'm not for letting any of them off the hook. There are real consequences to invading a fucking country and blowing it to shit on false pretenses. Take a look at some of them:

and
AP/Alaa Al-Marjani
and
AP/Mohammed Adan

Let's be clear, all the death, all the destruction, all the mayhem... it's America's fault. And those who could have spoken up, and chose not to, deserve a special place in hell.