Two weeks ago, the Bush White House started a “public relations offensive” to let the world know that everything is going well in Iraq and that the war on terror is a great success. All of the administration’s heavy hitters — Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice — gave high-profile speeches urging the public to be upbeat about our progress.
On Oct. 9, Bush noted that things may seem chaotic right now, but the situation is “a lot better than you probably think.”
I imagine that many of the administration’s fans appreciated the pep talks; some may have even believed the rhetoric.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, however, does not appear to be one of them.
This week, USA Today, in a tremendous scoop, obtained a copy of a memo sent to top military and Pentagon officials in which Rumsfeld paints a bleak picture of events in Iraq and in the war on terror.
Despite all the talk about “progress” in our efforts, the administration has “no yardstick for measuring progress in the war on terrorism,” has not “yet made truly bold moves” in fighting al-Qaeda and other terror groups, and is in for a “long, hard slog” in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Rumsfeld’s memo.
Point by point, Rumsfeld reported that our progress is practically non-existent. He also observed:
* The U.S. is having “mixed results with al Queda” and is “just getting started” in Iraq
* We’re “putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan” to “stop the next generation of terrorists”
* War costs are enormous. “The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists’ cost of millions.”
* It’s hard to know if the U.S. is making any progress at all. “Is our current situation such that ‘the harder we work, the behinder [sic] we get’?”
* We don’t even know if we’re succeeding, because we lack the “metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror”
Perhaps the most troubling, over-arching point gleamed from Rumsfeld’s memo is the sense that the administration, despite its public confidence, really has no meaningful plan for what happens next.
As Wesley Clark said yesterday, “I find it incomprehensible that we entered into a war in Iraq with no plan. Somehow, this administration took all the lessons we learned over the past decade, especially in Bosnia and Kosovo – and even the first Gulf War – and did the exact opposite. No clear definition of success, no international mandate, no integrated political-military strategy to win the peace, and no exit strategy.”