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View Full Version : Pace: Mistakes were made at beginning of Iraq war



Gunny
09-15-2007, 10:45 AM
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- If he knew then what he knows now, he might have made some different decisions before the start of the Iraq war in 2003, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters Friday.


Outgoing Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace says he now thinks more troops were needed at the war's start.

"One of the mistakes I made in my assumptions going in was that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi Army would welcome liberation, that the Iraqi Army, given the opportunity, would stand together for the Iraqi people and be available to them to help serve the new nation," Gen. Peter Pace said.

more ... http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/14/pace.iraq/index.html

He's hardly the only one that made that incorrect assumption. Arrogance is bred into us.

Dilloduck
09-15-2007, 12:56 PM
He's hardly the only one that made that incorrect assumption. Arrogance is bred into us.

You think he is lying--?

Gunny
09-15-2007, 02:01 PM
You think he is lying--?

No. I think he is being brutally honest, and saying some things a lot of people don't want to hear on the right or the left. The right doesn't want to hear it because it means they screwed up, and the left doesn't want to hear it because they accuse anyone of saying Arabs don't think like we do of racism.

Nothing racist about it. Their culture is just ass-backward from ours. They don't value what we do, and ideals we take for granted are foreign concepts to them.

Anyone who thinks a bunch of tribal-minded hut-dwellers who have been killing each other for the slightest trivialities for centuries and only took a break when ruthlessly suppressed are going to embrace western-style democracy.

But we, in our blind arrogance, can't fathom the idea that others might not think we're the greatest thing since sliced cheese and WANT to live their little feudal lifestyle without "Big Brother" telling them what they should want.

Dilloduck
09-15-2007, 02:04 PM
No. I think he is being brutally honest, and saying some things a lot of people don't want to hear on the right or the left. The right doesn't want to hear it because it means they screwed up, and the left doesn't want to hear it because they accuse anyone of saying Arabs don't think like we do of racism.

Nothing racist about it. Their culture is just ass-backward from ours. They don't value what we do, and ideals we take for granted are foreign concepts to them.

Anyone who thinks a bunch of tribal-minded hut-dwellers who have been killing each other for the slightest trivialities for centuries and only took a break when ruthlessly suppressed are going to embrace western-style democracy.

But we, in our blind arrogance, can't fathom the idea that others might not think we're the greatest thing since sliced cheese and WANT to live their little feudal lifestyle without "Big Brother" telling them what they should want.

I thought it was a pretty straightforeward statement too----refreshing to see something said that wasn't intended to be a spin.

Gunny
09-15-2007, 02:09 PM
I thought it was a pretty straightforeward statement too----refreshing to see something said that wasn't intended to be a spin.

The majority of Marines being conservative is more the nature of the beast than anything else. Most aren't very politics-oriented though.

The best way to fix a mistake is to recognize its existence first.

Psychoblues
09-16-2007, 09:48 PM
How can you spin a colassal screw up like this WAR ON IRAQ? Pace sat on his thumbs as he saw General after General fired and replaced because they said the very things that needed to be said at the time. And don't for a moment intimate that the majority of Marines are in any way politically conservative. The vast majority of Marines that I deal with daily are quite American, even liberal if you will.

Gunny
09-16-2007, 10:00 PM
How can you spin a colassal screw up like this WAR ON IRAQ? Pace sat on his thumbs as he saw General after General fired and replaced because they said the very things that needed to be said at the time. And don't for a moment intimate that the majority of Marines are in any way politically conservative. The vast majority of Marines that I deal with daily are quite American, even liberal if you will.

Who's trying to spin anything? You been tapping the cider again? Pace says in the article he made incorrect assumptions. Pretty cut-n-dried.

And dude, if you are going to claim the Marines you know are liberal, then I'm going to say you don't know many, and the ones you do are probably first-termers. The Marine Corps itself is a conservative institution. That would of course create a onservative environment, and instill a conservative attitude in varying degrees in most Marines.

If I can help you out in any other way, be sure and let me know.:poke:

LiberalNation
09-16-2007, 10:03 PM
Pace: Mistakes were made at beginning of Iraq war
No shit.

Gunny
09-16-2007, 10:04 PM
No shit.

Well, didn't you just add a lot to the conversation?:lame2:

Dilloduck
09-16-2007, 10:27 PM
No shit.

There's a little history behind this in case you haven't heard. The dems have been begging for years to hear someone admit they were wrong. Now that one is, you jump his shit LOL.

LiberalNation
09-16-2007, 10:27 PM
about as much as you normally add.

Psychoblues
09-16-2007, 10:34 PM
Absolutely not, gunny. Many of the Marines I deal with are certainly 1 term types but I deal with hundreds that are 8,12 and above year types as well as 20 and above career types. The ones I meet and assist are quite ordinarilly liberal in their political views and resent much of what this Republican Administration has staked it's reputations on.

The very day that I hear from any official source that the United States Marine Corps is pulpit preaching the accolades of the party that so ignores it's troops and veterans is the day I will begin an ultimate nationwide effort to shut that operation down. Did you hear about the evangelical shut down in the Air Force Academy a few years back? Don't tell me that it isn't possible or even probable. I certainly already know far more about this issue than you, gunny.

Preaching politics in uniform is a violation of the UCMJ, gunny, or didn't you know?

Gunny
09-17-2007, 05:57 AM
Absolutely not, gunny. Many of the Marines I deal with are certainly 1 term types but I deal with hundreds that are 8,12 and above year types as well as 20 and above career types. The ones I meet and assist are quite ordinarilly liberal in their political views and resent much of what this Republican Administration has staked it's reputations on.

Must be rwo different Marine Corps then. The one I served every day of 20+ years in was as I have previously described.

The very day that I hear from any official source that the United States Marine Corps is pulpit preaching the accolades of the party that so ignores it's troops and veterans is the day I will begin an ultimate nationwide effort to shut that operation down. Did you hear about the evangelical shut down in the Air Force Academy a few years back? Don't tell me that it isn't possible or even probable. I certainly already know far more about this issue than you, gunny.

Preaching politics in uniform is a violation of the USMJ, gunny, or didn't you know?

You either missed, or misread my initial statement. I specifically mentioned that Marines are not very politically-oriented. The conservativism I described in an ideal, not a political party. Other than to basically make fun of ALL politicians for being rubes, politics are rarely discussed, and when they are, in private.

The official public stance is we work for the Commander in Chief .. be it GW or Bill, Ronnie or Jimmy.

And I can only roll my eyes over the fact you actually think you know more about the Corps than I.:laugh2:

Psychoblues
09-26-2007, 02:53 AM
You're so funny when you're angry, Gunny.



You either missed, or misread my initial statement. I specifically mentioned that Marines are not very politically-oriented. The conservativism I described in an ideal, not a political party. Other than to basically make fun of ALL politicians for being rubes, politics are rarely discussed, and when they are, in private.

The official public stance is we work for the Commander in Chief .. be it GW or Bill, Ronnie or Jimmy.

And I can only roll my eyes over the fact you actually think you know more about the Corps than I.:laugh2:

Nonetheless, I am certain that I know more about the politics of Marines than you do and you have already admitted that!!!!!!!! So, can we not go out and get a beer and agree not to get on each others nerves from now on?

Psychoblues
10-10-2007, 11:51 PM
No shit?


You think he is lying--?

What do you think?