Times columnist denounces Iraq war effort

Bad decisions have real consequences, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert told a packed McCosh 50 audience Tuesday night in a lecture titled, "The Consequences of Incompetence."

"In most cases, the links between decision-making and the consequences are not adequately examined," he said. "Most of the time they are not even recognized."

Herbert, a columnist since 1993, has vocally criticized the government's handling of events like Hurricane Katrina and, especially, the war in Iraq.

In his talk, he focused on the administration's failure to protect American soldiers in the war and to plan for the reconstruction that followed.

Herbert also drew comparisons between the war in Iraq and the Vietnam War, relating anecdotes from soldiers who served in each.

"If you're going to put [soldiers] through that kind of hell, you better have a damn good reason," Herbert said. But reasons aside, the administration should have waged the war more competently once they got there, he added. Herbert then shared the story of a soldier who was injured by a roadside bomb because his vehicle wasn't armored.

"We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on this war, but we still haven't provided enough to protect the troops," he said.

Pointing out that one soldier was killed on his third tour in Iraq, Herbert noted how unevenly Americans are sharing the burden of war. He added that people in the government who had predicted that the military would require far more soldiers than others expected were humiliated and ridiculed.

"Politicians are almost given the benefit of the doubt," he said. "You criticize them at your peril."

He added that the administration also failed to acknowledge and adequately prepare for the guerilla war the soldiers are now fighting.

"The United States prepared for what they said would be a quick and easy war against conventional forces," he said. "I don't know why they thought that ... Anyone who was serious about fighting us is going to use unconventional means. That's the only way they would stand a chance."

The administration's lack of planning for the war was followed by incompetence in the aftermath, Herbert said, especially in running a "headless state" once Saddam Hussein was removed from power.

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"It's not that there was no plan for policing," he said. "There was no plan, period."

Finally, Herbert faulted the media for failing to educate the public about serious public issues. Comparing the coverage of Hurricane Katrina — in which victims' stories were continuously told in detail for days — to coverage of the war in Iraq, he noted that if soldiers received more attention, "we'd have fewer wars, and we certainly would not be in Iraq."

"We should not tolerate incompetence in high places," he said. "I know the country has been extremely polarized over politics over the past few years, but perhaps we can lower our partisan swords long enough to recognize that no one ... can make longterm gains from incompetent leaders."