MILWAUKEE - Senior military leaders instituted such a flawed strategy from the outset of the Iraq war that there no longer are any circumstances under which U.S. troops can pull out without seeing the situation deteriorate more, a retired Army general said Monday.
Retired Lt. Gen. Robert G. Gard Jr. said the military turned Iraqis irreversibly against the U.S. because of policies that tolerated civilian casualties.
"The military adhered to its traditional doctrine of destroying the enemy with force, not defeating or neutralizing the enemy," he told a group of about 100 people at a downtown church. "As the number of civilian deaths increased, we turned them against us."
The appearance was sponsored by an anti-war group, Win Without War, which describes itself as a coalition of groups that view international cooperation and enforcement of international law as the best way to provide security for the United States and the world.
President Bush said while campaigning for Republicans in recent days that his administration has a plan for victory in Iraq, and Democrats should not be trusted to control Congress because they have no idea how to win there.
But Gard said the military should have adopted lessons from its experience in Vietnam, but officials preferred to believe the United States would never again have to fight insurgencies.
"We needed to secure areas (in Iraq), establish governments, jurisprudence, begin reconstruction, so the populace sees there's more to gain by joining you rather than joining the insurgents," he said.
Gard, 78, said he believes U.S. troops are "very much opposed" to continued occupation in Iraq but can't speak out about it because they're on active duty.
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