Monday, July 14, 2003
Who needs plans?
Pentagon planners failed to develop detailed plans for postwar Iraq because they were convinced Iraqis would welcome US troops and that a hand-picked exile leader would replace Saddam Hussein and impose order.
The exclusive report in Knight Ridder Newspapers quoted more than a dozen current and former senior government officials, many of whom linked a lack of US planning to the current chaos in Iraq.
"There was no real planning for postwar Iraq," said one former senior official. Most of those interviewed requested anonymity.
Civilian planners at the Pentagon's secretive Office of Special Plans hoped to transform Iraq into an ally of Israel, remove a potential threat to the oil trade in the region and encircle Iran with US friends and allies, the report said.
It's not a quagmire.
posted by chris at 2:35 PM
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