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01/11/2006:

"Bremer claims he was used as Iraq ‘fall guy’"

01/09/06 "FT" -- -- Paul Bremer, former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, says that senior US military officials tried to make him a scapegoat for postwar setbacks, including the decision to disband the Iraqi army following the US invasion in 2003

In a memoir published on Monday that broke a more than year-long silence, Mr Bremer portrays himself in a constant struggle with Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, and military leaders who were determined to reduce the US troop presence as quickly as possible in 2004 despite the escalating insurgency.

He also writes how Mr Rumsfeld was “clearly unhappy” that Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser, had taken control of Iraq policy from the Pentagon in late 2003.

A Pentagon spokesman on Monday confirmed that Mr Bremer had sent Mr Rumsfeld a memo based on a report by the Rand Corporation consultancy that recommended 500,000 US troops would be needed to pacify Iraq – far more than were sent. But Mr Bremer’s advice was rejected by military leaders and Mr Rumsfeld.
informationclearinghouse.info

Powell says lack of troops impeded success
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday night in the Twin Cities that he harbors no regrets about the U.S. invasion of Iraq but acknowledged wartime mistakes and warned that Iraq's eventual government might not be as broad-based as American leaders had hoped.

In a speech at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, he urged nearly 1,000 people to pray for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the people of Israel. Powell called Sharon, who suffered a major stroke last week, a man of peace.

Powell said that the world is in better shape now than at any point in his life. He said fascism and communism have been defeated and that while terrorists can blow up buildings and take hundreds and even thousands of lives, they cannot remake this country the way Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union would have.

...The mistake in Iraq was not that the U.S. invaded, he said. It was that "we didn't have enough troops to take control on the ground'' and didn't immediately impose martial law in order to protect the various ministries and infrastructure throughout Iraq.

Yup, Sharon is a man of peace, and a million troops would have really done the trick.