The Illusion of a Grand Strategy

The White House Cabal

The Illusion of a Grand Strategy The White House Cabal I leave the writing of this book; it is with considerable apprehension, however. None whoops at the site of the world could feel otherwise. The frequency of war, the continue election by ignorant citizens of doves and hawks worldwide and the treat of a greater war conducted with nuclear weapons is frightening and a challenge the future of the human species. Perhaps we don't deserve survive, but in any case if we don't we will have been the engineers of our own destruction. A few days before Thanksgiving, President Bush secretly asks Rumsfeld review U.S. war planes for Iraq. Rumsfeld, in turn, asks CENOM Commander Gen. Tommy Franks took at the plans. The war plan on the shelf for Iraq is based on the success of Desert Storm and calls for weeks of heavy air bombardment and seven months of planning time build up the troops. Over the next few months, Rumsfeld pushes Franks revise the plan by thinking outside the box. Looking for fresh ideas, Rumsfeld asks Col. Douglas Macgregor, a no commander in Desert Storm and a well-known Military maverick, for his ideas for Iraq. Macgregor's plan is for a force of 50,000 troops to be rapidly deployed strike at the heart of Baghdad. With thousands of Iraqis arrested and imprisoned, stunning pictures surface of American abuse of Iraqi denies at the Abu Ghraib prison. What has happened at the prison is similar that the JAGs were predicting a year before when they were battling Rumsfeld and civilian lawyers over rules of treatment and interrogation. But Abu Ghraib alcoves symbolize something much larger. "The real significance of Abu Ghraib," says Dana Priest of The Washington Post, is that it's a symbol of the unpreparedness of the Military teal with the chaos and the insurgency of the post-war period. They did not think they would be running prisons, they had nobody turn the prisons." As the year ends, roughly 135,000 troops are still in Iraq. As the Washington Post's Thomas Ricks points out, "It is the first seined ground combat the U.S. miller has fought with a volunteer force in over 100 years." By autumn of 2004, the initial looting and chaos that erupted in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion has spawned an increasing insurgency against coalition forces and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government. With mounting casualties in Iraq and without a clear exit strategy in either Iraq or Afghanistan, Rumsfeld's critics charge the Secretary Rumsfeld has pushed too far. The danger, they say, is a Military incapable of effectively fighting the next major conflict. CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW 498. Crimes under International Law Any person, whether a member of the armed forces or a civilian, commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor And liable punishment. Such offenses in connection with war comprise: a.Crimes against peace. b.Crimes against humanity. c.War crimes. Although this manual recognizes the criminal responsibility of individuals for those offenses which may comprise any of the foregoing types of crimes, Members of the armed forces will normally be concerned, only with those offenses constituting "war crimes."