- WASHINGTON - President Bush's
aides did not forcefully present him with dissenting views from CIA and
State and Defense Department officials who warned that U.S.-led forces
could face stiff resistance in Iraq, according to three senior administration
officials.
-
- Instead, Bush embraced predictions of top administration
hawks, beginning with Vice President Dick Cheney, who predicted Iraqis
would joyously greet coalition troops as liberators and that the entire
conflict might be over in a matter of weeks, the officials said.
-
- Dissenting views "were not fully or energetically
communicated to the president," said one top official, who, like the
others, requested anonymity. "As a result, almost every assumption
the plan's based on looks to be wrong."
-
- Top political and military leaders insist that the war
to oust Saddam Hussein and neutralize his weapons of mass destruction is
on course. Army and Marine units are within 50 miles of Baghdad, troops
pour into Iraq, and increasing swaths of Iraqi territory have been taken
from the regime's control.
-
- But debate over the war's course roiled Washington on
Friday. Confronted with questions, administration officials insisted that
they had never promised an easy conflict and accused the media of making
snap judgments 10 days into the war.
-
- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it was premature
to ask whether the administration miscalculated the Iraqis' desire to rise
up against Saddam.
-
- But some senior U.S. officials now acknowledge that they
might have underestimated the threat from Iraqi paramilitary units, which
have engaged in guerrilla warfare against U.S. and British forces and threatened
or executed Iraqis trying to surrender.
-
- In southern Iraq on Friday, persistent hit-and-run attacks
on U.S. supply lines and positions seemed to substantiate the view of Army
Lt. Gen. William Wallace, who told The New York Times and The Washington
Post on Thursday that the enemy has proven more stubborn -- and the war
more complex -- than expected.
-
- "The enemy we're fighting is different from the
one we'd war-gamed against," he said.
-
- Though Wallace's comment reportedly angered many administration
officials, Rumsfeld said he had not read it. "People see what they
see and say what they say," he said.
-
- The president has been careful to not describe the war
as easy or cost-free. "A campaign on the harsh terrain of a nation
as large as California could be longer and more difficult than some predict,"
Bush said in a speech to the nation shortly after the first cruise missiles
struck Baghdad.
-
- But some of those predictions came from Bush's own White
House. In a televised interview three days before the Bush speech, Cheney
said, "I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators."
-
- Cheney said his assessment was based in part on meetings
with Iraqi exiles, many of whom predicted a quick collapse of Saddam's
regime after an invasion.
-
- The exiles, led by Ahmed Chalabi, and some U.S. officials
proposed that the job be done by a far smaller force than what is now in
Iraq. The force would have relied heavily on small bands of U.S. special
operations forces linked with U.S. air power and opponents of the regime
inside Iraq.
-
- Richard Perle, an influential former Pentagon official
who is close to Rumsfeld, reportedly gave a briefing to Wall Street firm
Goldman Sachs 10 days ago in which he predicted that the war would last
no longer than three weeks. "And there is a good chance that it will
be less than that," he said.
-
- U.S. intelligence agencies insist that they warned policymakers
and war planners about the risks of Iraqi unconventional warfare.
-
- A Feb. 3 CIA report predicted that Iraqi irregulars might
employ hit-and-run tactics and dress in civilian garb, a U.S. official
said. It suggested that militias could pose the greatest threat to coalition
forces, said the official.
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- http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/5510092.htm
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- Comment
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- Ann Taylor
2-29-3
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- Jeff - This is a howl! Do we hear the sound of buck-passing
and maneuvering?!!
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