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| How can you trust their judgement? |
paraclete |
03/31/06 |
Rice admits "thousands" of tactical errors. How can you trust the judgement of someone who makes one tactical error?, how then can you trust the judgement of someone who makes thousands?. You can't because it means that they haven't learned by their mistakes.
Rice admits to Iraq 'mistakes'
From: Agence France-Presse
by Peter Mackler in Blackburn
April 01, 2006
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has acknowledged that the United States had made "thousands" of tactical errors in Iraq but said history would vindicate the strategic goal of ousting Saddam Hussein.
Spending the day in Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's home constituency in northwest England, Rice was dogged at every turn by small but noisy protests by dissident locals in Washington's staunchest wartime ally.
But the chief US diplomat gave new ammunition to critics who contend that the US-led forces botched the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq after invading in March 2003 and quickly capturing Baghdad.
Full coverage In-depth: Iraq - the road ahead
"I know we've made tactical errors, thousands of them, I'm sure," Ms Rice told some 200 scholars, officials and journalists at a forum organised by Britain's prestigious Chatham House foreign policy institute.
"This could have gone that way, or that could have gone that way. But when you look back in history, what will be judged is, 'Did you make the right strategic decision?"'
And toppling Saddam was the correct move, Ms Rice said, since he had been a long-time threat to the international community and "we were not going to have a different kind of Middle East with Saddam at the centre of it".
Ms Rice, one of the architects of the war that has become highly unpopular in the United States, upheld Washington's quest to introduce "liberal democracy" in a region long defined by its dictatorships.
"Who today would honestly defend Arab authoritarianism which has created a sense of despair and hopelessness so desperate that it feeds an ideology of hatred that leads people to strap bombs to their bodies and fly airplanes into buildings?" she asked.
Citing Iraq as an example, Ms Rice told the forum, "With time, with painstaking efforts, and with our steadfast support, Iraqis will build up their fragile democratic culture."
"Eventually, many decades from now, people will take it for granted," she predicted. "That democratic culture was always to be -- just as we, in America and in Britain now take for granted our democratic cultures."
Several hundred critics of US and British policy in Iraq took to the streets of Blackburn -- where one in five residents are Muslims, mainly of South Asian origin -- throughout the day to denounce Ms Rice's visit.
They forced her to use a side entrance when she went to tour a high school in the former Industrial Revolution mill town, where she also visited the Blackburn Rovers soccer team and a plant where next-generation fighter jets are built.
"Condoleezza Rice, go home!" some of the marchers yelled. Others cried out: "Hey, hey Condi Rice, how many kids have you killed today?" -- paraphrasing a chestnut from the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s.
Their placards were equally poignant: "Stop the war" and "How many lives per gallon?"
The protests had already led to the cancellation of a planned visit Friday to a mosque in Blackburn, from where Ms Rice proceeded to nearby Liverpool, the port city that gave birth to the Beatles.
Ms Rice was unfazed by the protests, saying they were a symbol of all that is good about democracy.
"It's okay," she replied when a student at the high school asked what she thought. "People have a right to protest and the right to make their views known."
"I'm not just going to visit places where people agree with me, that would be really unfortunate."
Iran's suspected efforts to develop nuclear weapons was also on Ms Rice's mind Friday, as she said threats of sanctions against the Islamic republic "have to be on the agenda" after the issue was referred to the UN Security Council.
"This is a process," she said. "Where we end up in this process in terms of the potential for sanctions ... will be in part dependent on whether the Iranian regime decides to respond to the just demands of the international system." |
Clarification/Follow-up by Erewhon on 03/31/06 10:50 pm:
Better wear your tin hat, you are in GOP country here, Brian, and they use live ammo!
Clarification/Follow-up by paraclete on 04/01/06 6:33 am:
don't know what you mean Ronnie
Clarification/Follow-up by ETWolverine on 04/03/06 5:09 pm:
One more point, Paraclete.
There was a US general during the Revolutionary War who lost more often than he won. This General lost New York because he split part of his forces to defend Brooklyn, where they were defeated en toto. He only managed to save the rest of his army through an amphibious retreat across the East River back to Manhattan, and then retreating north to Westchester while under fire. He then lost while trying to defend Philadelphia at the battle of Brandywine. His counterattack at Germantown got screwed up, and he was defeated there as well. Poor logistical planning nearly destroyed his army in the winter of 1777-78, while his troops were holed up for the winter.
Care to name the General in question who so clearly failed tactically so man times?
His name was George Washington.
Tactical mistakes do not mean that the war has been lost, or even that those tactical decisions were in error. $h!t happens in war, and there is no way to be 100% right all the time. And yet, despite his many disasterous losses, Washington is hailed as one of the greates generals of all time. His occupation of Dorchester Heights was brilliant and forced the Brits to retreat despite having a better equipped, better trained army that had previously defeated any colonial force sent against them. His ability to overcome the logistical problems of that terrible winter at Valley Forge in 1777-78 solidified his reputation as a great leader under adversity. The Battles of Trenton and Princeton are still classic battles taught in military academies worldwide. His actions at Monmouth kept the entire colonial army from falling into a rout that would have cost the colonies the war.
So the fact that the administration is admitting to "tactical mistakes" means absolutely NOTHING. All that it tells me is that people have had to make adjustments on the ground in order to correct those mistakes.
Elliot
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