- WASHINGTON (AFP) -The US
military strategy in Iraq is based on a "flawed" logic because
it is pursuing the mutually exclusive goals of changing the country's regime
and doing it "quickly and on the cheap," an American military
scholar has concluded.
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- Army Lieutenant Colonel Antulio Echevarria presented
his findings in a report published last month by the US Army War College,
which made a point of saying the study presented only the views of its
author.
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- Echevarria said military operations designed to bring
about regime change usually require a labor- and time-intensive effort.
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- But the administration of President George W. Bush, he
argued, was driven by "the desire to win the war quickly and on the
cheap."
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- It downplayed the possibility that the overall financial
cost of the conflict would be high and even dismissed chief White House
Economic Adviser Lawrence Lindsay, who had projected the conflict could
cost between 100 billion and 200 billion dollars, according to the report.
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- "It lowballed the number of US troops and other
personnel that might have to be put in harm's way to get the job done,
and how long they might have to remain deployed," the scholar wrote.
-
- The analysis echoes warnings issued early last year by
then Army chief of staff General Eric Shinseki, who told Congress several
hundred thousand troops would be needed in post-war Iraq.
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- In a rebuke, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
said the projection was "wildly off the mark," and Shinseki was
sent into retirement soon thereafter.
-
- Congressional critics have repeatedly stated since then
that the Shinseki analysis was correct and accused the administration of
feeding the public unrealistic rosy forecasts.
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- US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted Thursday
he could not have predicted the level of losses suffered by US troops in
Iraq in recent weeks.
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- "I certainly would not have estimated that we would
have had the number of individuals lost in -- that we have had lost in
the last week," he told reporters.
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- More than 80 US troops have been killed in Iraq since
the start of April, making it the deadliest month for the United States
since the US-led invasion one year ago.
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- In his report, Echevarria wrote that senior military
officials had failed to realize that while a high-tech shock-and-awe campaign
may have been enough to break the back of the Iraqi military, a larger
force would still be necessary for the ensuing stability operations.
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- He said Rumsfeld's office had dismissed all arguments
in favor of a larger contingent as "old-think" or "perceived
them as foot-dragging by a military perhaps grown too accustomed to resisting
civilian authority."
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- Since sufficient support from the United Nations and
NATO failed to materialize, Echevarria pointed out that the goal of building
a democratic Iraq "is, thus, still in question, with religious extremists,
terrorists, criminals, Saddam loyalists and other anti-US factions contributing
to an apparently growing insurgency."
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- Rumsfeld announced Thursday that about 20,000 US troops
who had been due to return home will stay longer in Iraq because of continuing
violence.
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