Iraq Postwar Chaos Created by Pentagon

David Rieff, author and Iraq correspondent, did a good review in the latest edition of " The Nation ". He reviewed " Losing Iraq: Inside The Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco "by David L. Phillips. The book traced the events in postwar Iraq to the seminal moment/decision when chaos began. That moment was when Bush signed National Security Directive 24. This decision gave control of postwar Iraq to the Pentagon. The original plan was for the State Department to take control with an immediate pass off to an Iraqi- run intermediate government. Instead Iraq got an occupation, loss of lives and destruction of infrastructure. Mr. Phillips mentions Douglas Feith ,then Deputy Secretary of Defense for Policy as the de facto head of Iraq policy. Paul Bremer, CPA and the occupation mess flowed from Feith and the Defense Department.

Douglas Feith's name rang a bell. He has been talked about by Senator Carl Levin of the Senate Armed Services Committee in his " continuing deception of Congress ". Congressman John Conyers has also made similar comments. This " deception " referred to Feith's part in the bogus intelligence of WMD and an al-Qaeda connection in Iraq.Whether charges will ever be formally made remains to be seen. The recent indictments of AIPAC representatives and Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin may lead back in Feith's direction.

Douglas Feith and his father Dalck have been honored by the Zionist Organization of America as " pro-Israel activists ". Douglas Feith has also authored/co-authored papers that seemingly conflict with stated US goals in the Middle East. For example, he advised the Prime Minister of Israel to abandon the Oslo Accords and to avoid a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.One wonders how someone with less of a pro-Israel attitude would have handled things in Iraq? An occupied Iraq is a postive for Israel and a negative for the US.