‘A successful invasion was turned into an unsuccessful occupation’
Neocon “Prince of Darkness” Richard Perle was interviewed recently by BBC’s Stephen Sackur. Perle advocated an attack on Iraq in 2003 with utter disregard of the consequences, saying “I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.”
From Think Progress:
“I’m not happy about the way events have unfolded in Iraq,†Perle began. But when asked whether he felt a “sense of personal responsibility†for what has happened in the aftermath of the invasion, Perle said “I certainly don’t consider myself responsible†for the disastrous post-war occupation of Iraq. Asked whether he was wrong on Iraq, Perle gave this response: “Well, I don’t believe I was wrong. Let me be very clear about that. What I think happened is that a successful invasion was turned into an unsuccessful occupation.”
Like nearly all of the architects of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, Perle has been rewarded and his career is going well.
Retired Army LTG Ricardo Sanchez, the top commander in Iraq in 2003-2004, who bore the direct responsibility for the mission of trying to occupy Iraq without enough troops, now says the occupation is a “nightmare with no end in sight.” This week, he elaborated on the subject:
“[T]he courage and blood of our troops have not been matched by a willingness on the part of Iraqi leaders to make the hard choices necessary to bring peace to their country,” Sanchez said in remarks to be aired Saturday for the weekly Democratic radio address. “There is no evidence that the Iraqis will choose to do so in the near future or that we have an ability to force that result,” he said.
LTG Sanchez retired in November 2006, after 33 years of Army service. He was not appointed to four-star rank because the Bush administration wanted avoid Senate confirmation hearings that would have raised questions about the Abu Ghraib scandal and other failures in Iraq.
