[lit-ideas] Bush's "Mission Accomplished" in Israel

From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Lit-Ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:26:37 -0700

"IN THESE first days of a fragile truce, as the soldiers return from the northern front, there is growing unease about the new crop of leaders who took the country into a war that most Israelis believe they did not win. While the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has promised to take personal responsibility for the shortcomings of the military campaign, the public's attention has turned to the conduct of the army's Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, after reports he sold shares on July 12 en route to a meeting to advise the Government to go to war.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/israelis-call-for-army-chiefs-head/2006/08/16/1155407884175.html

"The cease-fire has caught us in the worst possible position: We didn't win and we didn't lose. We simply blew it. It was a war with too many people being led and no one leading; a war with too much bluff and bluster at the top; a war with too many Churchillian speeches and not enough thinking about what we were trying to achieve and where we were heading. What makes an army - or its chief of staff, to be exact - get up one fine morning and persuade a semi-rookie government to launch an all-out war at the drop of a hat because two of our soldiers were kidnapped? How did a whole country get sucked into this thing, without an organized plan, without a defined objective, without calculating how it would end, without giving thought to the costs and the damage that would be inflicted, without knowing how long it would last and what constituted a victory?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750506.html

"With the ceasefire taking effect, the government of Israel has gone on a public relations offensive, but a thousand public relations experts cannot turn failure into victory. The home front was neglected and the army was sent to war without any operational plan, lacking supplies, and with erroneous conceptions."

http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=109994

"(Israeli) Newspapers and radio shows were filled with outrage over army chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz's decision to sell off his stock portfolio just hours before launching Israel's biggest military operation since its 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6018910,00.html

And many more news items at http://news.google.com/?ncl=http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/israelis-call-for-army-chiefs-head/2006/08/16/1155407884175.html&hl=en


So why is Bush so insistent that he won this war?

yrs, andreas www.andreas.com

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[lit-ideas] Bush's "Mission Accomplished" in Israel

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