One Misfired War Prediction Worth Looking at Twice: From the Inter Press News Service on April 2:
"The problem with the conduct of the war is that it is laying the seeds for a very ugly occupation," noted [XXX], who warned that U.S. troops could face a situation not dissimilar to that experienced by Napoleon when he tried to occupy Spain.Who is this inaccurate fortune-teller XXX, and why did he trot out that "cabal" word to describe Bush's foreign policy architects? Why, it's Charles "Chas" Freeman, former U.S. ambassador to -- wait for it! -- Saudi Arabia. Posted by at April 16, 2003 02:14 AM"It is fairly incredible that the civilians (in the Pentagon) inhaled their own propaganda about the welcome that U.S. forces would receive from the Iraqis," [XXX] told IPS, adding, "No one who knew anything about the region ever bought (the notion that U.S. troops would be welcomed as liberators), but no one who knew anything about the region was invited to take part in policy discussions."
"In this case, there was a sort of cabalistic exclusion of the experts and an intent to misrepresent intelligence to sustain the policy."
Sickening. Not surprising.
Posted by: gregor at April 16, 2003 09:02 AMWho would know more about the feelings of the "Arab street" than a guy who doesn't speak Arabic?
Posted by: Scott Ross at April 16, 2003 10:46 AMAgain, that word, "experts." It seems to me that when ever anyone evokes experts, they mean themselve, to the exclusion of others, be it in journalism or international affairs.
Posted by: scott at April 16, 2003 06:18 PMIf the Iraqi's are so happy being occupied, why is it necessary to fake the images?
http://www.thememoryhole.org/media/evening-standard-crowd.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2842.htm
Posted by: mark at April 20, 2003 02:43 PM