The fact that we had no orders for armored humvees, nor any real program for ensuring all the troops had enough body armor. Both of those were ins uted only AFTER the we had been there for almost a year with no sign of the unexpected insurgency going away. I say unexpected on the part of the administration. Those of us with any topical knowledge knew otherwise.
Negligent reconstruction planning. I use this word very deliberately. I think this administration is criminally negligent in the planning of this occupation. I blame this incompetence for 80%+ of all the dead service members and it angers me beyond words.
Cases in point:
#1 Iraqi health care.
Original guy was an actual doctor with experience in running health care in war zones like Somalia and Kosovo.
He was replaced with (surprise!) a political hack who, instead of trying to increase access to health care, spent more time on trying out ideas on drug purchase plans than actually delivering health care. The political hack used Iraq as an experiment on how to set up a system of drug purchase and delivery and completely failed in delivering things like basic sanitation and simple care for wounded.
Second case:
Industrial privitization.
To meet ideological ends, the neocons decided to privatize all the factories in Iraq.
To do this they gave the job to three Americans with some business experience. After the first few months of deteriorating conditions in terms of things breaking and not getting fixed, and slowing productivity, these three guys decided that they needed some help, and brought in the main German guys responsible for assimilating the East German factories into the private enterprise system.
The Germans came in and met with the Americans, and started telling them what needed to happen. The conversation went something like this:
Germans: "It is very good to meet you, but you should have brought your staff with you. Regardless, let's get started, you need to get your staff to do X, Y, and Z, and then..."
Americans: "But we don't have any staff, it is just us three..."
Germans (flabbergasted): "We thought you were the leaders of the program, not the whole program. It took 6,000 administrators, engineers, technicians, accountants and others to get all the east german factories up to speed."
Americans: "Sorry, it is just us"
Germans: "You have wasted our time. The job you have been given is impossible given the resources given. We can't do anything to help you, sorry"
End result:
The factories eventually deteriorated so far because of lack of spare parts and raw materials that Iraqis stopped showing up, futher adding to the unemployment fueling the insurgency.
The list goes on, just browse through the many books chronicling this "fiasco".
This administration tried for cheap and easy political points, and got way more than it bargained for. I think the rabid Bush supporters will say this is simply more "far left" cynicism, but it is my best hypothesis, based on this administration's proven behavior and available evidence.
If you aren't appalled, you haven't been paying attention.
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