On the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war, a swearing-out

by John MacBeath Watkins

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, I'd like to give a special swearing out ceremony for the man who did more than any other to turn a tragically misguided war into a complete fiasco.

Normally, this blog eschews rude language and tries to convey meaning in a polite, yet forceful manner. But when I think of what Donald Rumsfeld did to my country and to Iraq, I am unwilling to allow the courtesy I would extend a mere serial killer to restrain me.

Donald Rumsfeld, you sorry, incompetent son of a bitch, you played your little bureaucratic power games and decided it would be a good idea to prevent any planning for what would happen after we invaded, because you wanted to cut Colin Powell and the State Department completely out of any decision making, and because you knew the American people wouldn't back the war if they realized what would be involved in occupying Iraq.

We have the testimony of the man who would have been in charge of making such plans, Brigadier General Mark Scheid, chief of the Logistics War Plans Division.

Scheid said the planners continued to try "to write what was called Phase 4," or the piece of the plan that included post-invasion operations like occupation.
Even if the troops didn't stay, "at least we have to plan for it," Scheid said.
"I remember the secretary of defense saying that he would fire the next person that said that," Scheid said. "We would not do planning for Phase 4 operations, which would require all those additional troops that people talk about today.
"He said we will not do that because the American public will not back us if they think we are going over there for a long war."

Here's a clue for the clueless: If the country won't back the sort of war you're going to fight, don't fight it.  Pretending it's going to magically turn out right won't do the trick.

So, we didn't keep the peace after we toppled Saddam, and allowed looting and chaos. We disbanded the army without an orderly demobilization, which would have allowed us to take their weapons back, just sent them packing with guns and ammo and no job. We fired the key people who knew how the country ran because, to have a government job, they'd had to join the Baath Party. We made these mistakes because you prevented any rational planning before the invasion.

You fucking idiot, you cost countless lives, by which I mean that while we know how many Americans died in that misadventure, we don't know how many lives might have been saved by better planning, and we will probably never know how many Iraqis died because of the mess you created. Not content with participating in the lies the whole Bush administration was putting out to get us into that war, you had to make sure we had no plan for the occupation, and made sure that the whole sorry mess would turn the population of Iraq against us in a matter of months.

People like you are fond of telling us that hope is not a plan, but that's all you had, you pathetic asshole. I believe the Iraqi term for a person like you is Kus Omak.

I suppose a Japanese leader whose idiotic incompetence killed as many people as you did might commit seppuku. A Roman who served his empire as badly would fall on his sword. You haven't even admitted how badly you fucked things up. You damned fool, there's no way you could repay our country for all the damage you've done, but you could at least admit fault and apologize. You never will, because you care more for your personal pride than you do for your country.

If there is a hell, I hope you go to the deepest and hottest pit.

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