The Donnybrook

Sunday, September 2, 2007

In the latest sign of growing tensions between London and Washington over Iraq, the top British officer involved in planning post-war Iraq, said he raised serious concerns with then US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the possibility of the country descending into chaos. But Rumsfeld "ignored" or "dismissed" his warnings, retired Major General Tim Cross, 56, told the Sunday Mirror newspaper.

The administration has been slamming the Brits lately for the deteriorating conditions in southern Iraq, while bristling at any suggestion that the surge is anything less than a success. The security situation in the south HAS been deteriorating. That's because of increased tension among Shi'ites, not a lack of British efforts. (Bush "surged" more troops to Baghdad than Britain has in Iraq overall.) It is all part of the consequences of taking over a nation with no realistic plan for what to do after the initial kinetic fights are over. Our plan seems to have been, "Let's just hope it all works out......." Hope is not a plan. "Superb job, Don." (That last line was uttered by the idiot in the White House who cannot remember why "his plan" of keeping the Iraqi Army in tact was not followed.)

UPDATE: Sir Mike is not alone.

"He didn't want to hear that message. The U.S. had already convinced themselves that Iraq would emerge reasonably quickly as a stable democracy," Cross told the Sunday Mirror. "Anybody who tried to tell them anything that challenged that idea -- they simply shut it out," Cross, the most senior British officer involved in planning post-war Iraq, added.

- posted by john @ 5:55 PM