> > the U.S. authorities in Baghdad so often
> > look like they don't know what they're doing -- because they don't. Many
> > of them are smart, talented, and eager. But they can't talk with the
Army
> > about security, they can't talk with Iraqi specialists about civil needs
> > -- in short, they can't find out what they need to find out -- so, for
far
> > too much of their time, they sit, paralyzed and helpless.
> >
> > The blame here cannot be laid on some interagency squabble between, say,
> > the State Department and the Pentagon. Keep in mind: Bremer's office is
a
> > division of the Pentagon; he reports to Donald Rumsfeld. No, this
> > particular foul-up falls in the same category of neglect as failing to
> > send in military police, failing to secure power stations, failing to
> > imagine that things might not go as planned.
As I've said before, a major difference between Iraq in 2003 and Japan in 1945 is that Macarthur was the viceroy of a New Deal Democrat administration which was just won the biggest war in history. He therefore had at his disposal a host of people who were used to coordinating massive civil infrastructure/engineering projects. Neocons and neolibs would not have a clue about these things.