Never Reported On "Fox"

Flash Back
THE MITCHELL REPORT 9-27-06 THE MITCHELL REPORT
Rumsfeld bungling the war in Iraq

Retired senior military officers told a Democratic Policy Committee's ((DPC) panel yesterday that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's failure to plan adequately for postwar Iraq has fostered the rise of insurgents and that the administration is not focusing enough on training and equipping Iraqi security forces.
The forum was the first of what Democrats say will be a series of five or six hearings intended to shed light on the administration's conduct of the Iraq war.And were held despite heavy Republican objection.

Democrats were insistant that Republicans, who hold majorities in both chambers, have not been vigorous in their role as overseers of the executive branch.Democrats also expressed frustration that Republican chairmen have been reluctant to call witnesses who do not share White House views.

(Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is threatening to punish Democrats for using an Appropriations Committee room for an unofficial hearing on Iraq oversight if it happens again."They better stop this," the Mississippi Republican said. "This will be the last one or there will be retribution." Lott suggested that Republicans could hold GOP-only hearings or seek other forms of payback.)

Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste told several senior Democratic senators and Republican Rep. Walter B. Jones who attended the hearing.

" Secretary Rumsfeld ignored 12 years of U.S. Central Command deliberate planning and strategy, dismissed honest dissent, and browbeat subordinates to build 'his plan,'" "Bottom line: his plan allowed the insurgency to take root and metastasize to where it is today," Batiste said.
Batiste also said "I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," He said Rumsfeld at one point threatened to fire the next person who mentioned the need for a postwar plan in Iraq.Batiste said if full consideration had been given to the requirements for war, it's likely the U.S. would have kept its focus on Afghanistan,"not fueled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe,and not created more enemies than there were insurgents." Gen. Batiste, also blamed Congress for failing to ask "the tough questions."

Retired Major Gen. Paul Eaton,responsible for training the Iraqi military and later for rebuilding the Iraqi police force.
Assessed Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically.""Mr. Rumsfeld and his immediate team must be replaced or we will see two more years of extraordinarily bad decision-making.Eaton also indicated "planning for the postwar period was "amateurish at best,incompetent a better descriptor."

Retired Col. Thomas X. Hammes,who was responsible for establishing bases for the Iraqi armed forces,and is now Marine Senior Military Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, National Defense University.
Said that not providing the best equipment was a "serious moral failure on the part of our leadership." The United States "did not ask our soldiers to invade France in 1944 with the same armor they trained on in 1941. Why are we asking our soldiers and Marines to use the same armor we found was insufficient in 2003?"

* One Republican, Rep. Walter "Freedom Fries" Jones of North Carolina, participated In The forum conducted by Senate Democrats. In his opening statement, Jones quoted Rudyard Kipling: "If any question why we died, tell them, because our fathers lied."

** The conflict, now in its fourth year, has claimed the lives of more than 2,600 American troops and cost more than $300 billion.

SOURCE - DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

**The conflict,has NOW claimed the lives of more than

3,100 American troops

Remember Our Service Men & Women
Die when our Military leaders make mistakes