[Kat]
Keeping in mind this was written last fall after some really bitter fighting to secure Iraq from Al Qaida and force them up to Mosul:
Pentagon institute calls Iraq war 'a major debacle' with outcome 'in doubt'
And it's reported by McClatchy, nearly six months after it was written, which I sometimes think is the second Al Qaida propaganda wing.
Updated: Small Wars has the details. This report is definitely not what the media is making it out to be -
The Miami Herald piece on a NDU "occasional paper" (Choosing War: The Decision to Invade Iraq and Its Aftermath), quoted alternately as a Pentagon or NDU study, raised some flags here at SWJ. So we asked the author, Joseph Collins, to provide some context. His reply:The Miami Herald story ("Pentagon Study: War is a 'Debacle' ") distorts the nature of and intent of my personal research project. It was not an NDU study, nor was it a Pentagon study. Indeed, the implication of the Herald story was that this study was mostly about current events. Such is not the case. It was mainly about the period 2002-04. The story also hypes a number of paragraphs, many of which are quoted out of context. The study does not "lay much of the blame" on Secretary Rumsfeld for problems in the conduct of the war, nor does it say that he "bypassed the Joint Chiefs of Staff." It does not single out "Condoleeza Rice and Stephen Hadley" for criticism.
Get out of here! The media distorting something? Say it ain't so, Joe.
But, Zawahiri Concurs, Five Years Later, Iraq is a Mess for the US (he doesn't mention his own problems there, of course)
To redeem McClatchy a bit, I would point to their Iraqi bloggers:
At last I'm in Adhmiyah neighborhood
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