Top General Admits Iraq Mistakes

Peter Pace; Outgoing Joint Chiefs Chairman General clearly admitted to having made mistakes at the beginning of the Iraqi war. He stated; “One of the mistakes I made in my assumptions going in was that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi Army would welcome liberation, that the Iraqi Army, given the opportunity, would stand together for the Iraqi people and be available to them to help serve the new nation… They disintegrated in the face of the coalition’s first several weeks of combat, so they weren’t here.”

Pace also mentioned that had he known that would happen, he would have recommended more troops be sent at the outset of the Iraq war, he mentioned.

In addition, he mentioned, if he had been asked in January 2006 whether the United States should build up its Army and Marine Corps contingents in Iraq, he would have said no, because the plan at the time was to build and equip an Iraqi Army and turn over security duties to it. The conference can be seen here on CNN’s website.

Do you think these sort of mistakes can be blamed for the “failure” of the Iraqi coalition operation of Iraq? How will mentions of slip-ups from top-leading generals alter your view on the invasion of Iraq and your opinion of George Bush?

Source