Petraeus, if confirmed by the Senate, will be responsible for both Iraq and Afghanistan. His elevation signals the Administration is sticking to its “stay the course” strategy, while it is obvious to millions of Americans that Iraq is a losing situation.The General’s promotion follows the April 17 release of a scathing report by the Pentagon’s National Defense University that called the Iraq war a “major debacle” with an outcome “in doubt.”
Iraq has diverted “manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers” from “all other efforts in the war on terror.”
Joseph Collins, the ex-Pentagon official who wrote the report, says the “surge” strategy devised by Petreaus largely prevented the break-out of an all-out civil war. Though the surge of 30,000 U.S. troops has improved security, the additional forces are not enough to ensure that Iraq become a stable democracy.
Collins puts the blame for the Iraq mess on the shoulders on President Bush who told former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to begin “planning in secret for potential military operations in Iraq” before the war in Afghanistan was over.
The report faults Rumsfeld for never having a “Plan B”, which covered handling the insurgency, after “Plan A,” the fight against Saddam Hussein’s military was over.”
The U.S. media to its discredit largely ignored the Pentagon report. The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal failed to mention the report, which says the situation in Iraq looks like a “can’t win” situation. Commendably, McClatchy Newspapers ran a nice feature on the Pentagon’s report.
The rest of the U.S. media have apparently grown weary of the Iraq quagmire. They have moved on to covering the sinking economy and the Clinton/Obama death march.
Aggressive media coverage of the Vietnam war helped pave the way out of that quagmire. It’s a shame the current media are giving the Administration a “pass” on Iraq.
They are doing a heck of a job.
