Bremer: Not enough troops in Iraq after Saddam's ouster

[Nym90]

(CNN) -- The former U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq says the United States "paid a big price" for not having enough troops on the ground after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime.

L. Paul Bremer, speaking Monday at the opening session of the 91st annual Insurance Leadership Forum in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, said "horrid" looting was occurring when he arrived in Baghdad on May 6, 2003.

"We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," Bremer said. "We never had enough troops on the ground."

Still, Bremer added, ousting Saddam was "the right thing to do."

Monday's forum was sponsored by the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, which released a summary of Bremer's speech.

Bremer detailed Saddam's brutality against his own people and spoke of visiting a field that served as a mass grave for 20,000 to 30,000 Iraqis, including women and children.

Saddam "killed more Muslims than any man in modern history" and may have killed as many as 300,000 Iraqis during his 35 years in power, Bremer said.

At the time President Bush went to war, Bremer said, the United States and other nations had intelligence suggesting that Saddam had:


Provided a safe haven to terrorist groups.


Used chemical weapons against Iran and his own people.


Lied about the possession of weapons of mass destruction for almost a decade.

No United Nations weapons inspection teams had been allowed in Iraq for almost four years, Bremer said, so there was a "real possibility" that Saddam might provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups that have vowed to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.

"The status quo was simply untenable," Bremer said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday conceded that U.S. intelligence was wrong in its conclusions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

"Why the intelligence proved wrong (on WMDs), I'm not in a position to say," Rumsfeld said in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "I simply don't know."

When asked about any connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, Rumsfeld said, "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."

But a short time later, Rumsfeld released a statement: "A question I answered today at an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) regarding ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq regrettably was misunderstood.

"I have acknowledged since September 2002 that there were ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq." (Full story)

Bremer said he believes Iraq will be able to hold elections scheduled for late January.

"Despite the daily reports, I am optimistic about the future of Iraq," said Bremer, who left said. Bremer left Iraq in June, when sovereignty of the country was returned to Iraqi leaders.

Militants claim 2 hostages killed
A group of militants in Iraq has claimed responsibility for killing two hostages -- one an Iraqi citizen who lived in Italy, the other a Turk.

The militants, who called themselves Salafi Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, released a video broadcast on Monday on the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera that showed two men kneeling with four masked militants behind them.

One of the militants read a statement saying the Turk was kidnapped and killed "because he served as an agent for Turkish and Iranian intelligence."

Al-Jazeera said the group claimed the other man was working with Israeli intelligence "trying to facilitate the sale of red mercury to a foreign group." Red mercury can be used in explosives. (Full story)

Other developments

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Tuesday arrived in northern Iraq for meetings with Kurdish officials, a Foreign Office official said. The talks in various cities will involve Jalal Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and Nechirvan Barzani of Kurdistan Democratic Party.


A Libyan charity association has joined the effort to secure the release of British hostage Ken Bigley from his Iraqi captors, a spokesman for the organization told CNN Tuesday. The spokesman said that Bigley's brother, Paul Bigley, spoke with Col. Moammar Gadhafi, and the Libyan leader promptly called on the Gadhafi International Foundation for Charity Associations to "do whatever we can to save the life of Mr. Bigley and get his immediate release." (Full story)


Insurgents released two Indonesian women who were taken hostage over the weekend along with six Iraqis and two Lebanese. The fate of the other eight hostages is unknown.


A roadside bomb attack on a U.S. military convoy near Baghdad late Monday killed one soldier and wounded two others, a military statement said. According to the Combined Press Information Center, an improvised explosive detonated around as a convoy of the Army's 13th Corps Support Command passed.


Two Iraqi police officials were assassinated south of Baghdad late Monday, an Interior Ministry official said. According Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman, the men were attacked by gunmen in Latifiya, a town about 20 miles (35 km) south of Baghdad. Rahman said one of the officials was the chief of the Diwania border police and the other was the chief of the Muthana border police.


Two car bombs rocked central Baghdad on Monday morning, killing 21 people and wounding 85 others near the Green Zone, where many Iraqi ministry buildings and the U.S. and British embassies are situated.


The U.S. military said it had killed more than 130 insurgents in two days of fighting in Samarra and called the operation a successful first step in the drive to retake cities from extremists. But locals said many civilians were among the dead and they were angry about the toll. (Full story)


Poland is considering reducing its forces in Iraq by 40 percent by January 2005 and pulling all its troops out by the end of that year, Polish officials said Monday. (Full story)

[The Duke]

Now he tells us.

Bremer is responsible for most of our trouble in Iraq, and now he wants to play hindsight on himself in an election year.

I stand by everything I've said on Bremer from day one.

[ThePrezMex]

Really funny (and distressing) how everybody here is commenting on the 'cheat sheet' and not on this. It is not even in bold charecters on Drudge.
Bremer's comments are huge! That's precisely the main criticisim against the current administration!

I think I'm fairly moderate and cannot be accussed of being an extreme liberal (just look at my political compass score). I also happen to like W personally and disagree with most extreme liberals that portray the Iraq war in so simple terms. It is a very complex situation. And I agreed that Saddam Hussein needed to be removed.

But I'm starting to get really irritated by the lack of intelligent comments around here in the last weeks. By the lack of desire to discuss issues and just start discussing nonsense and typing incoherences fueled by ignorance. Just some weeks ago a lot of people were complaining about the extreme liberal trolls and now, we have lots of trolls on the other side. Some are new, some have been here for a while. It is just starting to be annoying.

When you read this note about Bremer, when you read this other one [http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/10/05/soldiers.mother.ap/index.html] you start growing pretty tired of those who only see conspiracies on one side, and those who with the greatest ignorance and superficiality start calling every position that is not shared by Goldwater, Wallace or David Duke as socialism or communism.

[ThePrezMex]

Now he tells us.

Bremer is responsible for most of our trouble in Iraq, and now he wants to play hindsight on himself in an election year.

I stand by everything I've said on Bremer from day one.

I agree with you John that Bremer is far from competent and shares a lot of responsibility. But at the same time, I think that his comments this time are totally correct (although he should be including himself in them) and damning.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

The real question here is WHY IS BREMER SPEAKING OUT?  Most Americans are mature enough to understand mistakes are a part of war.  Mistakes aren’t condemnable.

Bremer may be motivated by a sense that this administration is not functioning.

[The Duke]

Hernan Cortez conquered all of the Aztec Empire with only 1,600 conquistadors and a few Tlaxcalan allies.  Troop numbers aren't the main problem.  The main problem is the de-legitimization of the political process in the eyes of Iraqis by a series of stumbles that did not take place in Afghanistan.

Right now, we have 130,000 sitting ducks in Iraq, and it wasn't until a few days ago that we started turning the US troops in Iraq into an asset not a liability.

[A18]

I thought we had too many troops? Howard Dean sure said so...

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Right now, we have 130,000 sitting ducks in Iraq, and it wasn't until a few days ago that we started turning the US troops in Iraq into an asset not a liability.

Agreed!  The "Let's win over their hearts and minds" approach was doomed from the beginning.

[A18]

As soon as the election is over, wait 2 weeks and then crush them.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

As soon as the election is over, wait 2 weeks and then crush them.

I agree, but you're assuming Bush has a plan.

[A18]

I think he does. You just can't get into kickass mode during the last month of an election.

Can you imagine how SeeBS would portray that?

"Tonight, 22 Americans have died. If we continue to lose 22 Americans a day, we'll lose 8,000 Americans a year. And yes, unimpeachable sources confirm that it's all Bush's fault."