this was so infuriating to watch I don’t even feel like going through my notes to write a cohesive review so here they are unedited: 

- supported Saddam to begin with since Reagan bc we feared Iran, then eventually betrayed insurgent forces and left them to die, Saddam then attempted to assassinate daddy bush after the embargo in early 90s -no connection between Osama and Iraq to begin with no plan in place when war announced, staff left to fend for themselves -all of Jay Garner’s efforts for a seamless transition post-Saddam are thrown away and abandoned once he’s replaced -military professional from bosnian wars warned they’d need several hundred thousand troops but send under 200k bc Iraq was already “post-war” -only oil fields/factories were protected in Iraq, museums and libraries allowed to be looted -people with zero military experience making decisions -Bremer fucked everything up with his orders, especially with the Ba’athification one (left people permanently unemployed based on thin political affiliations) followed by disbanding Iraqi military completely even though they were offering support and their own troops to help -not enough american troops to secure ammunition locations, recently unemployed military knew where all the weapons were -journalists tried warning military and telling them when ammunition locations were being accessed but they simply didn’t have enough bodies to do anything about it -decision to disband Iraqi military was made by single digit officials who never visited Iraq to begin with, and did not consult with anyone in Iraq, 0 intelligence agencies, not even Bush -Slocombe is an idiot who never stepped foot in Iraq up until that point and ignored advice from everyone, especially Hughes who had over 100,00 signatures from Iraqi officers pledging to join and help US forces before the disbandment order went through -Slocombe recommended to Brenner to dissolve Iraqi army -How did Slocombe agree to this interview?? glad he did though we needed at least one of these idiots to out themselves and their incompetence -man my heart hurts for Hughes in all of this, you can tell he really put in the work to prevent a disaster that was nonetheless allowed by people in positions of power making decisions way outside of their depth -Slocombe 4 day visit of Iraq after recommending disbandment order on May 16th, didn’t return until over a month later mid June (Hughes looks pissed when divulging this information btw) -Bush said “bring em on” after reports of american casualties from IED’s became public this dude is such a shithead -troops in Iraq were given Humvee’s with inadequate protection/armor -Rumsfeld constantly laughing in his press conferences is infuriating -MAN SHOUTOUT PAUL HUGHES!! he’s the realest, not only has he been shitting on executive military decisions this whole time but now he’s calling out nepotism hires after Brenner came in and calling them pretty boys -US officials sheltered themselves in “green zone” instead of interacting with civilians -Sergio Viera de Mello had a boots on the ground approach but was ignored by Brenner, including his advice against hooding Iraqi POW’s, eventually tied in terrorist attack -Bush was hands off, Iraq war mostly led by VP and Sec of Defense -this shit was basically Vietnam all over again -US succeeded in goal of getting rid of previous regime but had no post-Saddam plans, no one in Iraq was ready or organized enough to assume control and US never bothered to plan that far ahead despite inserting themselves in conflict

this was so infuriating to watch I don’t even feel like going through my notes to write a cohesive review so here they are unedited: 

- supported Saddam to begin with since Reagan bc we feared Iran, then eventually betrayed insurgent forces and left them to die, Saddam then attempted to assassinate daddy bush after the embargo in early 90s -no connection between Osama and Iraq to begin with no plan in place when war announced, staff left to fend for themselves -all of Jay Garner’s efforts for a seamless transition post-Saddam are thrown away and abandoned once he’s replaced -military professional from bosnian wars warned they’d need several hundred thousand troops but send under 200k bc Iraq was already “post-war” -only oil fields/factories were protected in Iraq, museums and libraries allowed to be looted -people with zero military experience making decisions -Bremer fucked everything up with his orders, especially with the Ba’athification one (left people permanently unemployed based on thin political affiliations) followed by disbanding Iraqi military completely even though they were offering support and their own troops to help -not enough american troops to secure ammunition locations, recently unemployed military knew where all the weapons were -journalists tried warning military and telling them when ammunition locations were being accessed but they simply didn’t have enough bodies to do anything about it -decision to disband Iraqi military was made by single digit officials who never visited Iraq to begin with, and did not consult with anyone in Iraq, 0 intelligence agencies, not even Bush -Slocombe is an idiot who never stepped foot in Iraq up until that point and ignored advice from everyone, especially Hughes who had over 100,00 signatures from Iraqi officers pledging to join and help US forces before the disbandment order went through -Slocombe recommended to Brenner to dissolve Iraqi army -How did Slocombe agree to this interview?? glad he did though we needed at least one of these idiots to out themselves and their incompetence -man my heart hurts for Hughes in all of this, you can tell he really put in the work to prevent a disaster that was nonetheless allowed by people in positions of power making decisions way outside of their depth -Slocombe 4 day visit of Iraq after recommending disbandment order on May 16th, didn’t return until over a month later mid June (Hughes looks pissed when divulging this information btw) -Bush said “bring em on” after reports of american casualties from IED’s became public this dude is such a shithead -troops in Iraq were given Humvee’s with inadequate protection/armor -Rumsfeld constantly laughing in his press conferences is infuriating -MAN SHOUTOUT PAUL HUGHES!! he’s the realest, not only has he been shitting on executive military decisions this whole time but now he’s calling out nepotism hires after Brenner came in and calling them pretty boys -US officials sheltered themselves in “green zone” instead of interacting with civilians -Sergio Viera de Mello had a boots on the ground approach but was ignored by Brenner, including his advice against hooding Iraqi POW’s, eventually tied in terrorist attack -Bush was hands off, Iraq war mostly led by VP and Sec of Defense -this shit was basically Vietnam all over again -US succeeded in goal of getting rid of previous regime but had no post-Saddam plans, no one in Iraq was ready or organized enough to assume control and US never bothered to plan that far ahead despite inserting themselves in conflict