Cobra II Go out and buy it today!

[Digi]

Well, I finally got over to Barnes & Nobles today to pick up a copy of this book. So far I have only made it through 3 chapters but I have learned a whole lot about what was going on in the lead up to the Iraq war. It is mostly enlightening, some of it is downright scary.

Some of the points that I have found interesting in the first three chapter:

1)How determined Rumsfield wasto invade Iraq witha small force to vindicatehis "transformation" of themilitary

2) How earlythe discussion of war and the eventualplanning took place. Also how W stated in both Germany and Paris that he had no war plans on his desk which are only true inthe most literal of meaningsconsidering war planning had been going on quite extensively for some time.

3) How big of a push there was inside the administration to skip Afghanistan and go straight to Iraq. Bushsmashed that idea and deserves props on that one.

4)How much of the planning and policy making was taking place and then just shown to bush for a yea or neadecision. (this isthe scary part)

5) Rumsfeild's push for the fastestdeployment possibleto avoidthe appearancethat the administration had already decided to go to war. The book leaves me with sensethatthe safetyand effectiveness of the troops was not the toppriority butinstead the illusion of diplomacy.

Anyway, enough of me giving my points. You folks can read it and draw your own conclusions.

[BenGarrett]

1 of 1 persons has found your review helpful. It helped convince me that I didn't want to read the book.

Yea, I was interested but not now.

[Digi]

Oh, come on guys. Rumsfield's attempt to transform the military has merit and he was basically correct as far as the war itself goes. I mean it was fast and decisive with fewer troops than many said would be necessary.

But to write this book off because it chronicles certain errors is not fair. So far this book has not been partisan. It lays out the events as they unfolded and these arethe conclusions that I came to. Yours may be different.

[Digi]

Chapter 4 details what was going on inside Saddam's regime and how the military structure existed prior to the invasion. All of this from countless interviews with Iraqi officials after the invasion.

Very interesting.

For those of you who do not like to read anything that has negative implications for the administration, you can just skip to chapter 4

[hillbillyhunter1]

Digi,

Some on here do not want to here ANY criticism of the current administration, whether it would be factual or not. Others are more open minded.

[RedAllison]

What if you looked at it like this???

Clintoon neutered the military so badly in 8 years that it would've taken AT LEAST that long, probably longer to get it back too pre-Clintoon levels. So without raising alot of eyebrows and going through the "your spending/ask for to much money for military" in Congress and through the media, Rumsfeld just says SCREW IT and figures a war is the quickest way to rebuild and get funding for our military?

YEAH that's the ticket...
RA

ps
Give that man a CIGAR!!!

[Digi]

Red that is an interesting slant.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by rebuilding though. Apparently, one of Rummy's objectives was to stream line the military. He wanted more technology with less mass (boots on the ground so to speak). There were some that felt this is the best way to deal with a possible war with China, and they are probably right. There is no way we can match there #'s. Anyway, the way these guys were going to free up more money for the new techno was to reduce the size of standing military(decrease payroll) and make the remaining leaner and meaner so to speak.

Shortly before Sept 11 Rummy put forth the idea at a meeting to reduce the army by 2 divisions. It did not go over well. Its in the book. p. 9.

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