The garbage and the lies.

Ex-Envoy Criticizes Bush's Postwar Policy (washingtonpost.com): "A former U.S. commander for the Middle East who still consults for the State Department yesterday blasted the Bush administration's handling of postwar Iraq, saying it lacked a coherent strategy, a serious plan and sufficient resources.



'There is no strategy or mechanism for putting the pieces together,' said retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, and so, he said, 'we're in danger of failing.'



In an impassioned speech to several hundred Marine and Navy officers and others, Zinni invoked the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s and '70s. 'My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice,' said Zinni, who was severely wounded while serving as an infantry officer in that conflict. 'I ask you, is it happening again?'"