Bush's Credibility Takes a Direct Hit From Friendly Fire
Rumsfeld said the insurgency could conceivably "go on for four, eight, 10, 12, 15 years, whatever…. We don't know. It is going to be a problem for the people of Iraq."
Historian Robert Dallek, a biographer of President Lyndon B. Johnson and an outspoken critic of Bush, said: "Analogies are imperfect, and I hate to press this one, but this is so much like Vietnam. It has echoes of the Vietnam experience when senators like [Arkansas Democrat J. William] Fulbright began to hammer Johnson on our aims and goals and credibility….
"It's a cumulative process. It takes time. We're not at the full-blown stage on this yet. But it's heading in that direction."
... Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another supporter, complained that although the
Pentagon claimed it had trained 170,000 Iraqi security forces, it refused to say how many were ready for military operations — "the key element to success," McCain said.
... "Senators are hearing from back home: If things are going so well, why do we hear every morning that 30 people have been killed in Baghdad?" said a top Republican advisor who refused to be identified.
... Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security advisor to President Carter, said: "This war has been conducted with tactical and strategic incompetence…. The president should provide the American people with a plan describing the key elements of a successful strategy in Iraq."
- posted by geoff @ #