Is Iraq Really Better?

Posted By Blackfive

By now, you have probably heard that the hand-over of power happened already in Iraq. L. Paul Bremmer is no longer in charge. While many are proclaiming his failures, I believe we won't really know how successful he was for at least another year or two.

The Chicago Sun-Times ran an article today about a raid that went wrong, then ended up on target. Here's the end note:

As the convoy rolled into the street hunting its target house, few seemed to notice. Life went on.

"The three times that I've seen the Americans in this street, they asked me if there was anything I needed," said Basher, the 23-year-old owner of a dry cleaning establishment. Despite the late-night intrusion, he described the regime shift from Saddam Hussein's totalitarianism to the American-led efforts as "a beautiful change. People now have satellites, microwaves; our money is worth more."

But I noticed this headline in the Chicago Tribune:

Bremer's legacy mired in violence
Despite his tireless effort, U.S. administrator Paul Bremer made decisions that brought a different kind of anguish to a post-Hussein Iraq, critics say

Is there more violence in Iraq than the United States or even Chicago?

Mistakes were made. That's certain because there is no operation of that scale and scope that is error-free; however, time will tell of the legacy of Paul Bremmer. I didn't agree with how we handled Fallujah and I don't agree with some other key points of the CPA. But, speaking from a standpoint of someone who usually has immense distaste for politicians influencing military operations, I think that, overall, Bremmer's legacy will be a good one.

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Is Iraq Really Better?

By now, you have probably heard that the hand-over of power happened already in Iraq. L. Paul Bremmer is no longer in charge. While many are proclaiming his failures, I believe we won't really know how successful he was for at least another year or two.

The Chicago Sun-Times ran an article today about a raid that went wrong, then ended up on target. Here's the end note:

As the convoy rolled into the street hunting its target house, few seemed to notice. Life went on.

"The three times that I've seen the Americans in this street, they asked me if there was anything I needed," said Basher, the 23-year-old owner of a dry cleaning establishment. Despite the late-night intrusion, he described the regime shift from Saddam Hussein's totalitarianism to the American-led efforts as "a beautiful change. People now have satellites, microwaves; our money is worth more."

But I noticed this headline in the Chicago Tribune:

Bremer's legacy mired in violence
Despite his tireless effort, U.S. administrator Paul Bremer made decisions that brought a different kind of anguish to a post-Hussein Iraq, critics say

Is there more violence in Iraq than the United States or even Chicago?

Mistakes were made. That's certain because there is no operation of that scale and scope that is error-free; however, time will tell of the legacy of Paul Bremmer. I didn't agree with how we handled Fallujah and I don't agree with some other key points of the CPA. But, speaking from a standpoint of someone who usually has immense distaste for politicians influencing military operations, I think that, overall, Bremmer's legacy will be a good one.

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