Ethics

Wolfowitz Admits Postwar Cluelessness

By Ed Brayton

It's only a few years too late, but Paul Wolfowitz is finally admitting that the administration was woefully unprepared for the postwar occupation of Iraq.

"There were two issues about enough troops," Mr. Wolfowitz, who served as deputy defense secretary between 2001 and 2005, said yesterday. "One was enough troops for the major combat. A lot of people said we didn't have it, and obviously we did. There was a very difficult balance that had to be struck between surprise, which meant a smaller force, and enough troops or a lot of troops, which meant a much slower force and potential of many disastrous consequences."

But on the question of postwar troop levels, Mr. Wolfowitz said he would have preferred to augment the American presence with trained Iraqis. "The other 'enough troops' issue was enough troops for afterwards. And I think on that point, yeah, we were clueless on counterinsurgency," he said.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 02, 2008 (boomark / email).