LuminousVoid

Sometimes, pro-administration commentators describe administration critics as supporters of a “cut and run” strategy in Iraq. This is whether these critics want immediate redeployment (I’ve seen few) or whether they want long term plans or goals for withdrawal — an exit strategy.

But today, I find out that the first “cut and run” strategy was actually promoted by Don Rumsfeld. Orin Kerr links us to this story that tells of Rumsfeld forbidding war planners from preparing for post-invasion securing of Iraq. It appears that he did this for two reasons: He thought Americans would not support staying in Iraq for a long time, and he thought that we would simply invade, take out the regime, and withdraw.

“The secretary of defense continued to push on us … that everything we write in our plan has to be the idea that we are going to go in, we’re going to take out the regime, and then we’re going to leave,” [Army Brig. Gen.] Scheid said. “We won’t stay.”

“He said we will not do that because the American public will not back us if they think we are going over there for a long war.”

“In his own mind he thought we could go in and fight and take out the regime and come out. But a lot of us planners were having a real hard time with it because we were also thinking we can’t do this. Once you tear up a country you have to stay and rebuild it. It was very challenging.”

Don Rumsfeld’s plan from the beginning was the “cut-and-run” that pro-administration commentators now falsely accuse their critics of supporting.