General McChrystal's Rolling Stone Interview A 'Significant Mistake,' Gates Says

He did.



"The strategic shift of 2007 succeeded through a combination of good thinking, good luck and good timing." - Steven Metz, "Decisionmaking In Operation IRAQI FREEDOM: The Strategic Shift of 2007", Strategic Studies Institute (avail PDF)



http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=985



The mid-term Comgressional elections made it possible, becuase Rumsfield left the next day.



From the beginning of the Administration, Cheney & Rumsfield ruled. The vast majority of actions came from their playbooks; Bush was a puppet, which he now realizes. Both stifled the flow of information to Bush, leaving him blissfully more ignorant than he already was. All military decisions and actions were channelled through Rumsfield. Dissenting viewpoints and opinions weren't allowed.



Cheney and Rumsfield ganged up on Colin Powell to make him as ineffectual and empty as Bush. Powell realized this and left in 2004.



Finally, Bush started to show a spine by saying 'no' to Cheney in the affair of Scooter Libby. Democrats took over, and Rumsfield was no more. New ideas got kicked around without being censored by Rumsfield or Cheney, anlthough Cheney still had influence. Afew points of the Iraq Study Report were lifted, the rest ignored. And Bush decided to take a chance with the 'surge'. It was made easier by the fact of Sunni-Shia ethnic cleansing, which had been going on for some time, and the start of a true counterinsurgency strategy that ignored the personal preferences of Rumsfield.



The boy was lucky. Coulda been even worse.
About Afghanistan
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