BELMONT’S SPIN UNRAVELS

The biggest news of the week was not the vice-presidential debate, of course. It was the revelation that the major criticism that many of us have made about the management of the Iraq war – that we never had enough troops and still don’t – was shared all along by none other than L. Paul Bremer! That’s a staggering concession – and one that Cheney had no real response to last night. Wretchard of the Belmont Club blog immediately countered by saying that what Bremer meant was that there were too few troops merely at the very beginning of the occupation, and that Bremer’s criticism was directly related to the absence of the Fourth Infantry Division, caused by the Turks’ refusal to allow the U.S. to use their country as an invasion point. Nice try. Bremer’s full quote is as follows: “The single most important change – the one thing that would have improved the situation – would have been having more troops in Iraq at the beginning and throughout” the occupation. (My italics.) Wretchard either removed the words “and throughout,” or missed them. Either way, his case collapses. Traveling yesterday, I missed those two crucial words myself and was far too conciliatory in myposting. Not only that but even the administration now concedes that Bremer kept pressing for more troops. According to the NYT, “‘The reality is that Paul kept pressing the issue, because it was immediately clear that a lot of facilities – even arms stockpiles – were unguarded,’ said one senior official who was part of that debate but insisted on anonymity.” Case closed. Wretchard claims that his only goal is the articulation of military strategy and that I don’t know what I’m talking about. The alternative explanation is that he is a partisan Republican, spinning the facts for political purposes. I link. You decide.