In a profoundly “duh” finding, the Pentagon’s special investigator reports (via CNN)
Planners for Iraq reconstruction did not anticipate conditions after the 2003 invasion, setting the scene for lackluster services that still plague the country, according to a report by the Pentagon’s inspector.
I can’t tell you how hard it is to restrain my nearly overwhelming desire for snark here. “Did not anticipate conditions” indeed.
*gag*
This, though, hit me like a 2 by 4:
He put the burden on Congress to develop ways to ensure nation-building efforts in the future are not as uninformed as he describes in his report.
Could we please have a moratorium on nation-building projects for a while? Please? This last go-round kinda pegged my fun-meter.
How about this: we get out of the Nation-Building business altogether, unless it is our nation. There are times when it is reasonable to destroy an existing government (certainly, we as a planet would have come to a lot less grief had we had a W in charge over in Europe in the ’30s, instead of the appeasers that were in place), but this is in fact a last-ditch thing, when absolutely nothing else will suffice.
I wasn’t all that thrilled about what happened in the former Yugoslavia, nor what happened in Somalia before. I think that this is one area where we ignore the Founding Fathers at our peril.
~EdT.
This actually goes right to the “when does stupidity become evil, because it was so avoidable” issue.
Nope… still falls into the “really really stupid” category. Or, the “heart was in the right place, but their head was implanted firmly between their cheeks…” category.
~EdT.
John and Ed —
For whatever reason, Pete’s post (linking to the Stupid vs Evil post) didn’t show up in the trackbacks. It’s relevant, though…
Prosecuting the Prosecutors’ Prosecutors
I think that this is one area where we ignore the Founding Fathers at our peril.
I think that this is one area where we ignore the Founding Fathers at our peril.
I think that this is one area where we ignore the Founding Fathers at our peril.
I think that this is one area where we ignore the Founding Fathers at our peril.
I think that this is one area where we ignore the Founding Fathers at our peril.
I think that this is one area where we ignore the Founding Fathers at our peril.
Glide625 – are you suggesting that our elected officials (regardless of which branch of the government they are serving in) be required to write that sentence on the blockboard until it sinks in?
~EdT.
The lack of foresight on the obvious problems that we were going to face continues to amaze me (and not in a good way).