Thank Goodness the Adults are In Charge

Joe Klein has written an article for Time this week. It's a recit of the Bush Administration's failures in persuing the Iraq war as well as the difficulties they face and would not be remarkable save for the lucid writing style of Mr. Klein.

At any rate, for those of you who want to believe the Bush Adminsitration, being Republican, will automatically wage war more effectively than the hated Democrats, you might want to skip it. Frankly, it's filled with passages like this.

It is no secret that General Tommy Franks didn't want to hang around Iraq very long. As Franks led the U.S. assault on Baghdad in April 2003, his goal--and that of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld--was to get to the capital as quickly as possible with a minimal number of troops. Franks succeeded brilliantly at that task. But military-intelligence officers contend that he did not seem interested in what would come next. "He never once asked us for a briefing about what happened once we got to Baghdad," says a former Army intelligence officer attached to the invasion force. "He said, 'It's not my job.' We figured all he wanted to do was get in, get out and write his book." (Franks, through a spokesman, declined to comment for this article.)

The rush to Baghdad, critics say, laid the groundwork for trouble to come. In one prewar briefing, for example, Lieut. General David McKiernan--who commanded the land component of the coalition forces--asked Franks what should be done if his troops found Iraqi arms caches on the way to Baghdad. "Just put a lock on 'em and go, Dave," Franks replied, according to a former U.S. Central Command (Centcom) officer. Of course, you couldn't simply put a lock on ammunition dumps that stretched for several square miles--dumps that would soon be stripped and provide a steady source of weaponry for the insurgency.

Something to think about. Still it's lucky we don't have Kerry in there; he might have really messed things up.