White House Ignored Warnings of Dangers in Iraq

Today, The Washington Post reports that the Bush Administration ignored warnings relayed days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that U.S. forces would likely face resistance by Iraqi Sunnis. At a hearing conducted by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, senior intelligence analysts said that "little if any" consideration was given to intelligence assessments that the war would "increase sympathy for terrorist objectives and make Iraq a magnet for extremists from elsewhere in the Middle East," while former White House advisors called the White House's lack of Middle East experience, "a major impediment to sound policymaking."

Once again we see clear evidence that not only did the Administration cherry pick the facts in the run up to the war, they also ignored credible intelligence predictions that could have reduced American causalities and helped to stabilize Iraq.

Below is an excerpt from the Washington Post:

Analyst Says He Warned of Iraqi Resistance
Danger Was Clear Early, White Said
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post
June 27, 2006

Days after the United States invaded Iraq, senior U.S. officials were warned that Iraqi Sunnis would strongly resist American troops' occupation efforts, according to testimony given yesterday before Senate Democrats. ...

...Witnesses who came before the senators included Paul R. Pillar, a longtime CIA analyst and a former national intelligence officer covering Iraq, and Lawrence B. Wilkerson, chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. White and Pillar both discussed the lack of Middle East experience by White House officials, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney, who pushed for the Iraq invasion. White said that "lack was a major impediment to sound policymaking if one already does not have an open mind and is driven by a particular agenda."

...Assessments by the intelligence community, Pillar said, showed that the "political culture" of Iraq "would not provide fertile ground for democracy," and analysts foresaw "a significant chance that the sectarian and ethnic groups would engage in violent conflict unless an occupying power prevented it." They also predicted that the occupying forces would become targets and that "war and occupation would boost political Islam, increase sympathy for terrorist objectives and make Iraq a magnet for extremists from elsewhere in the Middle East," Pillar said...

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