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Len at Dark Bilious Vapors and Steve at The News Blog via DC Media Girl pointed to Larry Johnson’s article on the death of Casey Sheehan.

I went out and did a little research and have concluded that when the history of Iraqi Freedom is written this period will be identified as the beginning of the disaster that the war in Iraq has become.

In late March through early April in 2004 a series of events plunged the US into a quagmire.

Rumsfeld made the decision to replace major units, rather than individuals to accomplish troop rotations. This meant that most of the troops involved in these events were “green” from privates to flag officers. There were major losses among the new units because they lacked the equipment or experience to protect themselves.

This was the period when the death and mutilation of the four mercenaries occurred in Fallujah and the US said: ‘We will respond’ to contractor killings.

This is when Paul Bremer decided to go after Muqtada al-Sadr by having the Iraqi government issue an arrest warrant for him, by closing down his newspaper, and by having the Spanish pick up one of his deputies.

The April 7, 2004 post by Riverbend of Baghdad Burning gives you a feeling for what was going on in the city.

Things spun out of control as CNN reported on Tuesday, April 06, 2004: “…in Baghdad and at least four cities in the country’s south, U.S. and coalition troops battled supporters of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for a third day.”

No mention of April 2004 would be complete without the crowning event: Abu Ghraib reported by CBS and Seymour M. Hersh.

Quiddity at Uggabugga has a bar graph that shows that since this outbreak in 2004 our casualties have exceeded the first year. Notice that the worse casualties occur during April, the changeover month.

Casey Sheehan died because of Paul Bremer’s annoyance with Muqtada al-Sadr and Donald Rumsfeld’s rotation concept. Nothing has been accomplished in the effort to reconstruct Iraq since April 2004. The infrastructure of Iraq was in better shape on the day the fall of Saddam’s statue was stage-managed for a photo op [April, 9, 2003], than anytime since.

[Edited to clear up the path and provide a direct link to Larry Johnson.]

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The University of Texas is a great on-line resource for maps. Today have a look at the distribution of ethnic Kurds around the Middle East and try to imagine why the Turkish, Syrian, and Iranian governments might not appreciate an independent Kurdish state.

It’s a very large map, but the Kurds cover a large area.

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