Pentagon (Feith): Saddam-Era General Was Mistake

[Barrett808]

Pentagon: Saddam-Era General Was Mistake
By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A former officer in Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard should not have been named to lead a military brigade in the tense Iraqi city of Fallujah, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith said the last link in the vetting process — public reaction — prompted the removal of Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh from the command of the Fallujah Brigade.

"After you finished vetting people and go public with somebody, if you've made a mistake, you hear about it and that allows you to take corrective action," Feith said. "And that's what was done in that case. And it was a mistake."

Feith was responding to a question after a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040504/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_iraq_general&cid=540&ncid=1480

[pinto]

1. funny, Rummy said the same thing today, almost verbatim. Got the memo.

on edit, except Rummy did NOT say, it was a mistake....

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Ah we noticed, we are not that asleep huh

[Spinzonner]

3. And this is different how ...

from setting policy and making decisions based upon polls ?

[Coventina]

4. Coventina: Going Into Iraq Was Mistake

*sigh*

"I told you so" seems pretty hollow.

[Snellius]

5. They've gone from stonewalling to the path of least resistance

This seems to be the administration's new line of defense, instead of screwing up as usual and pretending "What? Where? Who? Me? Huh?". Now they just give a perfunctory "Oops, Gosh, I guess I made a mistake. Never mind." Like the drunk driver who runs over your son or daughter, says "Sorry" and drives away.

[UpInArms]

6. uh ... yeah .... right ....

so why in the world were we not "heard" February 15, 2003?


New York 2/15/03


San Francisco 2/16/03


Los Angeles 2/15/03

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/15/sprj.irq.protests.main/

Cities jammed in worldwide protest of war in Iraq

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Huge crowds of anti-war demonstrators jammed into midtown New York on Saturday as protesters in dozens of U.S. cities joined large crowds worldwide in voicing opposition to war with Iraq.

Demonstrators converged near the United Nations to protest the possible war in just one of the more than 600 anti-war rallies around the globe. Organizers estimated the crowd at more than 375,000, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly estimated turnout at 100,000.

Besides protests in large cities such as Chicago, Illinois; and Los Angeles, California; rallies were held across the United States in smaller towns such as Gainesville, Georgia; Macomb, Illinois; and Juneau, Alaska, according to the anti- war group United for Peace and Justice. (Full story)

In New York on Saturday, a giant puppet depicting President Bush holding buckets of blood and oil towered over the cheering crowd that was pressed against police barricades near U.N. headquarters. The main demonstration stretched 20 blocks down First Avenue, and overflowed onto Second and Third avenues as more people tried to reach the rally.

<snip>

"This is the greatest support we could ever give to our troops because what we are trying to do is protect them from going into harm's way needlessly," Reiner said. "There is no God-awful reason to go to war at this moment. There is no reason to rush into this war, and what we are trying to do is protect our troops from sending them into harm's way."

...more...

[calimary]

7. This just gets Ickier and Ickier and Ickier!

November can't come soon enough...

[gratuitous]

8. "Public reaction" caused them to change their minds?

Now, I thought this administration didn't govern by consulting polls!

[samsingh]

9. i think that was obvious to most people

except the neocons.