My
Two Sense
Monday, January 15, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16610770/site/newsweek/page/4/
Very interesting statement buried in a Newsweek article this
week..
Gen. Jack Keane, at the time the Army's vice chief of staff, told
NEWSWEEK that Franks believed that the postwar planning, known
as Phase Four, was the responsibility of a different general,
retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, head of the tiny, understaffed Office
for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (who in turn was
soon replaced by a civilian, Ambassador Paul Bremer). "Franks
was dead wrong, and I don't believe he did this thing right, but
he literally washed his hands of this Phase Four stuff,"
says Keane, speaking with unusual bluntness about a fellow officer.
(Franks disagrees, pointing out that Garner served under him.)
Keane himself was stepping down just as the insurgency started
in late spring 2003. "I went to Iraq in June, looked at it
and I knew we were in deep s--t," Keane told NEWSWEEK. "I
was going out the door. I felt frustrated. Frustrated with the
situation, frustrated with myself and everything else. And somewhat
guilty because I knew how ill prepared the Army was to deal with
it." But Keane gave no public warnings.
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