General Richard Wilmot (US Army ret.) has created a blog that documents his views on the situation in Iraq. Falling outside predictable party lines, his observations and recommendations bear the hallmark of common sense.
“Early on we did some strange things,” General Wilmot explains. “We ripped out the bureaucracy and destroyed the military and the law enforcement agencies. We forgot about the tribes and tribal issues as well as the religious aspects of Iraqi life. We looked at solutions through Western eyes.”
He goes on to point out that, “Indeed, one of the consequences of having committed our missteps in Iraq is that we have demonstrated to our enemies, be they in Iraq or elsewhere, that we are incapable of prevailing when confronted by an urban, guerrilla-style counterinsurgency.
The General states categorically that there is an ongoing civil war in Iraq and offers interesting commentary on Robert Gates, statements made by Senator John McCain, the Vanity Fair interviews of Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman and David Frumm and Fareed Zakaria’s quotes of President Bush in Newsweek magazine.
General Wilmot is a consultant to industry and the US Government as well as foreign governments on special projects such as nation building, creating strategic alliances, international business techniques, counter-terrorism, international security and crisis management. He volunteers hundreds of hours of time to Youth Leadership Training in Arizona and California through Angel Light Academy. General Wilmot was the CEO of the Steele Foundation, a global risk management company.