Politics: First Useful Thing I've Heard From Him

Former Army Secretary and former-er Enron executive Thomas White said in a USA Today interview that the Pentagon won't admit to the reality that the occupation of Iraq will take a long long time and will require a major commitment of U.S. troops. Noting that the 3rd Infantry has been told to remain in the region indefinitely, White said:

"This is not what they were selling (before the war)," White said, describing how senior Defense officials downplayed the need for a large occupation force. "It's almost a question of people not wanting to 'fess up to the notion that we will be there a long time and they might have to set up a rotation and sustain it for the long term."

(It should be noted, if only parenthetically, that White has a serious axe to grind with Rummy and the rest of the gang who couldn't shoot straight over at the White House. He was fired because he embraced the possibility of a longer occupation with more troops, but also because he was a straw man on which Cheney and Rummy could hook a lot of oil-related and Enron-related unpleasantness and then set floating down the river. He'll write a book and make a mint, and I'm sure the converted millions in pre-bust Enron stock he put in trust before taking the Army Secretary gig are keeping him in boats and cars through the millenium. So he's no hero, and he's got an agenda, but it does sound like he is also in tune with reality.)

Of course, James Fallows made this point in the Atlantic in November and White agreed with Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki when he made the assertion that three to five hundred thousand troops would be required for the occupation and maintenance of Iraq. But, as White says, what they were selling before the war was some kind of beautiful, imaginary, surgical operation where democracy would spring immediately from the fertile Mesopotamian soil and Sunni and Shiite would embrace and select a mutually agreeable benevolent leader. Seems to be going great so far.