In a speech yesterday to the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority L. Paul Bremer admitted to a series of United States “mistakes” during the occupation. According to Bremer, the United States never had enough troops on the ground to control the country. Moreover, Bremer suggested that there was “horrid” looting because of an “atmosphere of lawlessness” that arose once Saddam Hussein was ousted from power. Despite the fact that weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq, an assertion repeatedly made by the Bush administration to justify the invasion, Bremer said that he still supports the war in addition to stating that there was a “real possibility” Saddam Hussein might have provided these weapons to terrorist groups that had vowed to kill Americans. How weapons that did not exist would be supplied to terrorist groups is unclear, but perhaps Bremer will explain this contradiction at his upcoming speech in Grand Rapids. Also absent from his speech was any mention of the nearly 13,000 civilians killed in Iraq or the Coalition Provisional Authority’s wholesale giveaway of Iraq’s resources to US corporations.
L. Paul Bremer is scheduled to speak on October 25, 2004 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids. The Republicrat (un)Welcoming Committee has called for a demonstration at Ah-Nab Awen Park (map) at 7:30pm in order to show that Paul Bremer is not welcome in Grand Rapids.
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