US needed 'Iraqi De Gaulle' for invasion: Perle

[Barrett808]

BERLIN (AFP) - Top US neoconservative Richard Perle, a key former architect of US President George W. Bush's foreign policy, has admitted there were mistakes in the execution of the Iraq war, saying the invasion had needed "an Iraqi De Gaulle."

Perle, who was an advisor to former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, told German weekly broadsheet Die Zeit in an issue to be published Thursday that a string of tactical errors had resulted in the chaos reigning in Iraq today.

"The idea was good, the execution was bad," he was quoted as saying in an advance German transcript of the interview.

"We should have agreed on a post-war Iraqi leadership" but were thwarted by opposition at the US State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, Perle said. "We should have marched into Baghdad with an Iraqi De Gaulle," he said.

...

Perle blasted the findings released last week by the bipartisan Iraq Survey Group mapping a way forward in the strife-raged country.

"I have never seen such a foolish report," he said.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061213/pl_afp/uspoliticsiraqneocon

[Nickster]

1. Jackass! That was your frigging plan, and you chose Chalabi! Idiot! n/t

[wtmusic]

2. More foolish than "Iraqi resistance will disappear like a whiff of gunpowder"?

Hard act to follow!

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Iraqi Gen. DeGaulle not calculated b/c the citizens were going to

pelt out liberating armed forces with flowers.

[SteppingRazor]

4. So, basically, we needed a somewhat ruthless leader with authoritarian tendencies...

to replace a ruthless, authoritarian leader?

Christ. :eyes:

[The Magistrate]

13. Indeed, Sir

An Iraqi version of Gen. DeGaulle would have been busily engaged in shooting at U.S. troops....

"Graveyards are full of indispensible men."

[Sherman A1]

5. More of the blame game and CYA

[Richardo]

6. I'm sure the Germans really appreciated the reference to DeGaulle

:thumbsup:

[bemildred]

7. More like an Iraqi Petain, is what he means.

Perle buggers it up again.

[daleo]

8. Saddam wasn't a foreigner

So the De Gaulle analogy is irrelevant.

[endarkenment]

14. not only that

but if for example the Iranians liberated Iraq from the foreign occupying army (that would be us) and installed al Sadr as ruler, that would be mildly analagous to our liberating France from its German occupiers. The analogy would still be flawed, but it would at least have some passing resemblance to the situation in iraq.

[coalition_unwilling]

15. al Sadr as the Iraqi DeGaulle. Makes sense to me in this

"Through the Looking Glass" world we currently inhabit.

[rodeodance]

9. "The idea was good, ---to invade a soverign nation???

"The idea was good, the execution was bad," he was quoted as saying in an advance German transcript of the interview.

[Barrett808]

10. They don't call him the "Prince of Darkness" for nothing. n/t

[daleo]

19. It sounds like something Hitler might have said in 1945

in an advance German transcript of the interview.

[endarkenment]

11. The analogy is totally stupid.

"The idea was good, the execution was bad"? The idea was criminal and perle ought to be executed, only I don't support the death penalty.

de Gaulle was a leader of the French people, all the French people. France was and is a nation with a strong democratic tradition and a continuous national history extending back to the early middle ages. After liberating France, we turned France back over to the French. What a concept! It worked!

[MisterP]

12. who, Sadr?

go back to Baghdad and applaud as the populace gives you the thumbs up, like last time (hint: it doesn't mean there what it means here)

[Roland99]

16. "The idea was good....to my portfolio"

[HuffleClaw]

17. i think he MEANT to say 'Philippe Pétain'

what a loon. it won't be long before they are blaming some astrological condition for their failure in iraq, as they've pretty much run out of people on earth to blame.

[Nutmegger]

18. Idea was good?

No, the idea is crap.

[zreosumgame]

20. hey you go to war with the Curveball you have, not the one you want

[truthisfreedom]

21. "I have never seen such a foolish report," and we have never seen such a foolish war.

Neo-convicts.

[Theduckno2]

22. I'll take an "Iraqi De Gaulle" with a side of fairy dust. That 'll fix it.

Mr. Perle! Would that "Iraqi De Gaulle" have been a Sunni, Shiite, Kurd or Vulcan?

[DoYouEverWonder]

23. I'm sure Perle's comments

are going to go over real well with Poppy and Uncle Jimmie.

Nice to see the Neocons and the Bush Gang at each other's throats.

[hvn_nbr_2]

24. De Gaulle? Wasn't he that Resistance guy who fought the foreign invaders?

Why in the world would Perle pick De Gaulle as an example? Oh, I think I know. He's a stupid neocon.

[arewenotdemo]

25. "The idea was good, the execution was bad."

Goebbels on the Nazi invasion of Russia.