It's bad when I agree with Weekly Standard writers.Follow

Imagine that, conservatives that don't cut and paste the White House party line. How odd. Couple of op ed pieces on the mistakes made in Iraq, the lack of planning, the lack of troops, the mistaken understnading of the Iraqi people's oppinion of Americans etc.

You know, what I've been mercilessly posting here for a year without regard to humor or anyone elses desire to read it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/17/opinion/17BROO.html?ex=1083222698&ei=1&en=dd95ccb95508d3bb

David Brooks, NY Times colomnist and former WSJ and Weekly Standard writer:


I didn't expect that a year after liberation, hostile militias would be taking over cities or that it would be unsafe to walk around Baghdad. Most of all, I misunderstood how normal Iraqis would react to our occupation. I knew they'd resent us. But I thought they would see that our interests and their interests are aligned. We both want to establish democracy and get the U.S. out.

I did not appreciate how our very presence in Iraq would overshadow democratization. Now I get the sense that while the Iraqis don't want us to fail, since our failure would mean their failure, many don't want to see us succeed either. They want to see us bleed, to get taken down a notch, to suffer for their chaos and suffering. A democratic Iraq is an abstraction they want for the future; the humiliation of America is a pleasure they can savor today.


http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/977ovnnr.asp

Bill Kristol, You've seen him on Fox News or one of the dozens of talking heads shows. Editor of The Weekly Standard:


Unfortunately, resolve alone won't bring success. Neither will well-delivered statements by the president. The problem in Iraq is not poor public relations, or a lack of will. Rather, it is the failure of policymakers at the highest levels to fashion a military and political strategy that maximizes the odds of success. That is what has been missing ever since Saddam's statue fell a little over a year ago.


...


Serious errors have been made--and made, above all, by Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon. The recent violence in Iraq has confirmed that the level of American military forces has been too low to accomplish the president's mission ever since the invasion phase of the war ended last April.

You read toilet paper?