Former Iraq Viceroy Paul Bremer Joins the Shrill Unbalanced Critics of George W. Bush

Kevin Drum writes:

The Washington Monthly: BREMER ON IRAQ....On Dateline last night, Paul Bremer confirmed something that he briefly alluded to last year: we never had enough troops on the ground to keep order in Iraq, and both George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld knew it.

Bremer said he sent a memo to Rumsfeld suggesting that half a million soldiers would be needed, three times the number deployed by the Bush administration.

"I never had any reaction from him," the former diplomat told NBC's Brian Williams on "Dateline."

Although he never heard back from his direct boss, Bremer said he discussed his concerns with Bush, who told him he would seek troops from other countries, but did not mention increasing U.S. forces.

...[T]hat half million number is pretty stunning. It's one thing to tell your boss you need more troops, but it's quite another to tell him you need three times as many as you have. That's the kind of warning that really ought to make someone sit up and listen, and if Bremer is on the level here it means that Rumsfeld and Bush screwed the pooch even worse than we thought -- something I'm not sure I would have thought possible until now.

Kevin: haven't you learned yet that the Bush administration is worse than you imagined, even after taking account of the fact that the Bush administration is worse than you imagined?

Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach Richard Cheney. Impeach everyone who has sat at the table in the Roosevelt Room during the George W. Bush administration. Do it now.

Comments

[Derelict]

Kevin is a "reasonable liberal," which means he's extremely gullible. Despite five full years of evidence of evil, he's still more than willing to give Bush and the Republicans the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party is currently dominated by people like Kevin. For them, it's just unthinkable that BushCo has less than the best intentions for whatever it is BushCo is doing at the moment. As most of us in the reality-based community long ago realized, BushCo NEVER EVER has the best intentions on any issue. It's sole intention is to consolidate and expand Republican power to no end other than attaining and retaining power itself.

[yup]

...and a little wealth here and there along the way doesn't exactly hurt.

[Howard]

any hour now, we'll hear that really, bremer is just a liberal.

or a democrat.

or even a blue-collar type.

over time, it will come clear that al gore appointed him to his position in iraq.

and poor george bush just was left with cleaning up the mess.

[marc sobel]

The sentence "Kevin: haven't you learned yet that the Bush administration is worse than you imagined, even after taking account of the fact that the Bush administration is worse than you imagined?"
reminds me of
"In order to understand recursion, you must first understand recursion." Unfortunately I think the math shows that there is no limit to how bad the Bushites are. Also, do you pronounce "Bushite" to rhyme with "tight" or "hit" ?

[Howard]

marc, i believe "bushite" rhymes with "tight," whereas "bu(sh)it" rhymes with "hit."

[Ari]

When are more Democrats going to add to John Murtha's call for withdrawal from Iraq? We should withdraw from Iraq in the coming 5 months and leave a mobile strike force only somewhere in the Middle East. There is no reason to stay in Iraq.

[Carol]

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Bushco has had power fro so long through so many administrations that collectively it is absolutely corrupt. All it seeks is absolute power, by absolutely all means at hand.

That anyone can question this is absolutely dumbfounding.

[Ari]

I have stopped caring about who asked for more troops or not. There was never a reason for this horrid war. Iraq was completely contained. But, we chose to attack Iraq at a resultant cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of Amnerican soldiers wounded or killed, thousand more Iraqis, and for what? Iraq was never a threat to America, and is no threat to us now, so leave. I am just heartsick with each report of casualties.

[Tad Brennan]

So who's going to do the Google leg-work to find the quote where Bush says that he would send more troops if the commanders in Iraq asked for it, but that they are not asking for it? I.e., the quote directly contradicted by Bremer's email?

[Dubblblind]

Speaking of stunning numbers for the Iraq war, here's one that looks at the real cost of Bush's war:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/iraq-war-cost-may-top-265-trillion/2006/01/08/1136655086964.html

"THE cost of the Iraq war could top $US2 trillion ($A2.65 trillion) after factoring in long-term health care for wounded US veterans, rebuilding a worn-down military and accounting for other unforeseen bills and economic losses, according to a new analysis.

The estimate by Nobel Prize-winning Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes far exceeds projections made by the Bush Administration.

The figure is more than four times what the war was expected to cost taking in this year — about $US500 billion, according to congressional budget data.

The new study is billed as a detailed analysis not only of the potential costs of sustaining the operation in Iraq for at least several more years, but also the expenses likely to be incurred by American taxpayers long after US troops withdraw. The Government will have costly obligations to a new class of veterans, be forced to make new investments in stressed military ranks thinned by multiple tours of duty, and withstand the enduring impact of the war on the nation's overall financial outlook."

[RS]

"Bremer said he sent a memo to Rumsfeld suggesting that half a million soldiers would be needed... ...and if Bremer is on the level here it means that Rumsfeld and Bush screwed the pooch even worse than we thought"

Screwed the pooch? From whose perspective? The pooch only looks screwed if you start from the assumption that the objective was rapid progression to peace and stability. If, however, the true objective were an ongoing struggle that could be used to justify a program of repressive measures at home, an insufficient (and thus cheaper) troop deployment, incapable of achieving much progress would be ideal.

[kharris]

Just as Mankiw ought to be asked why he waited so long to notice out loud that there were problems with the Bush economic agenda, it is hard to give big cudos to Bremer for telling us now that Bush wouldn't listen to advisers in the field. There has been a US election, and a bunch of dead soldiers, and a bunch of dead Iraqis, between now and when this sort of public criticism might have done some real good. Criticizing a president whose poll ratings stink doesn't take all that much courage.

[BroD]

I recall that it was Bremmer who--after it was clear that there were no WMDs--went to ask Kofi Annan for U.N. assistance in post-invasion Iraq. It seemed to me the only appropriate response would have been...well, shall we say, "Cheneyesque".