SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATIONS MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY NUMBER OF U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL IN IRAQ
October 9, 2003
OCTOBER 9, 2003
SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY -
NUMBER OF U.S. MILITARY
PERSONNEL IN IRAQ
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) issued today's "Bush Administration's Misstatement of the Day" on the Administration's miscalculation on the size of the U.S. military force in Iraq.
Earlier this year, then Army's chief of staff, Gen. Eric Shinseki, said that the occupation would require several hundred thousand soldiers. According to USA Today (6/2/03):
"[Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz criticized the Army's chief of staff, Gen. Eric Shinseki, after Shinseki told Congress in February that the occupation could require "several hundred thousand troops." Wolfowitz called Shinseki's estimate "wildly off the mark."
The Washington Post reported today (Defense Official Moves to Ease Strained Relations With Army, 10/9/03):
".he [Wolfowitz] lauded Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, with whom he clashed publicly last spring about the likely size of the U.S. occupation force that would be needed in postwar Iraq. When Shinseki left office as Army chief of staff in June, neither Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld nor Wolfowitz attended his retirement ceremony, a breach of protocol that raised eyebrows across the service."
Schakowsky said, "General Shinseki was right, but those in the Bush Administration who never served in the military refuse to admit their mistakes. Secretary Rumsfeld and his Deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, are responsible for the failed policies in Iraq and President Bush must demonstrate real leadership and relieve them of their duties. They were wrong about the size of the force and they were wrong about the war in Iraq."