Former UK foreign minister - Robin Cook - the war was badly planned!

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Ted Striker

I can't wait for all this cheap oil so I can get 25 cents a gallon gas! Yeehaw! Kill all the towel heads for oil!!!

Hrrrm, I don't think the intention is to decrease the oil price, but to increase it. They don't want the Iraqi oil as such, just to keep it away from the market so that the oil companies in Texas can gain more profit. After all, Bush and his friends would get richer if the oil price was kept at a permanent high level, right?

(BTW, my cousin's husband is an oil millionarie in Dallas. I haven't yet asked him what he thinks of all this. He might have some inside info )

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Olaf HÃ¥rfagre


Hrrrm, I don't think the intention is to decrease the oil price, but to increase it. They don't want the Iraqi oil as such, just to keep it away from the market so that the oil companies in Texas can gain more profit. After all, Bush and his friends would get richer if the oil price was kept at a permanent high level, right?

(BTW, my cousin's husband is an oil millionarie in Dallas. I haven't yet asked him what he thinks of all this. He might have some inside info )

And the plot thickens.

You actually believe that crap? Good lawd.

[Boris Godunov]

According to this week's New Yorker magazine, military officials are accusing Rumsfeld of incompetence in planning the campaign:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=615&e=7&u=/nm/20030329/pl_nm/iraq_usa_report_dc_2

Report: Rumseld Ignored Pentagon Advice on Iraq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly rejected advice from Pentagon (news - web sites) planners that substantially more troops and armor would be needed to fight a war in Iraq (news - web sites), New Yorker Magazine reported.

In an article for its April 7 edition, which goes on sale on Monday, the weekly said Rumsfeld insisted at least six times in the run-up to the conflict that the proposed number of ground troops be sharply reduced and got his way.

"He thought he knew better. He was the decision-maker at every turn," the article quoted an unidentified senior Pentagon planner as saying. "This is the mess Rummy put himself in because he didn't want a heavy footprint on the ground."

It also said Rumsfeld had overruled advice from war commander Gen. Tommy Franks to delay the invasion until troops denied access through Turkey could be brought in by another route and miscalculated the level of Iraqi resistance.

"They've got no resources. He was so focused on proving his point -- that the Iraqis were going to fall apart," the article, by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, cited an unnamed former high-level intelligence official as saying.

A spokesman at the Pentagon declined to comment on the article.

Rumsfeld is known to have a difficult relationship with the Army's upper echelons while he commands strong loyalty from U.S. special operations forces, a key component in the war.

He has insisted the invasion has made good progress since it was launched 10 days ago, with some ground troops 50 miles from the capital, despite unexpected guerrilla-style attacks on long supply lines from Kuwait.

Hersh, however, quoted the former intelligence official as saying the war was now a stalemate.

Much of the supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles has been expended, aircraft carriers were going to run out of precision guided bombs and there were serious maintenance problems with tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment, the article said.

"The only hope is that they can hold out until reinforcements arrive," the former official said.

The article quoted the senior planner as saying Rumsfeld had wanted to "do the war on the cheap" and believed that precision bombing would bring victory.

Some 125,000 U.S. and British troops are now in Iraq. U.S. officials on Thursday said they planned to bring in another 100,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of April.

I predicted a while ago that, should the war not go off as an instant and spectacular success, Rumsfeld would be the fall guy. This would seem to be the beginning of that, perhaps, if the story is correct.

The bolded sections have made me begin to very seriously fear for the lives of our troops now.

[Dauphin]

Say it ain't so! How will we cope without Rummy's way with words?

[Ted Striker]

The whole stalemate, running out of supplies thing is far fetched.

There is no question that the planners underestimated troop strength. That just makes it take longer is all.

[Zylka]

Someone told me to do a Google {snip by MtG} to gain insight into the current situation in Iraq

...boy was that a mistake

by MtG: Yes it was.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
Not really. The Kurds are actively fighting side by side with the US in the north.

For now. Things can change very quickly if they and the Turks start getting trigger happy, the US will be on their own in the north if that happens. But at least they won't be taking pot shots at the Americans, provided they don't do something really stupid like side with the Turks.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Ted Striker


And the plot thickens.

You actually believe that crap? Good lawd.

As much as I believe the BS about "liberate the Iraqi people". Why would an Arab country want to be liberated by Christians who use words like "crusade" in their speaches? The whole idea is probably to unite the American people against a common enemy, make them forget the domestic problems and win a second term. But some profits from a high oil price wouldn't hurt as a spin-off, would it?

[Ted Striker]

Now you're just making stuff up.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Zylka
reference removed by MtG

*throws up after doing the search*

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Ted Striker


Now you're just making stuff up.

Are you talking to me? Well, what do YOU think was the reason this war started? You seem to have a very clear view.

[Ted Striker]

It's all about unfinished business.

[Cyclotron]

It seems very unlikely it is because of oil, and even if it were likely I have seen no evidence to indicate such.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
It's all about unfinished business.

I think we have a consensus on that.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by cyclotron7
It seems very unlikely it is because of oil, and even if it were likely I have seen no evidence to indicate such.

See my previous post: Then why didn't you invade Cuba instead? Or Zimbabwe?