BBC NEWS | Americas | Iraq invasion plan 'delusional'

I truly hope that this gets further press and Congress at least holds a hearing as to the absurdity of the conclusion of the study.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Iraq invasion plan ‘delusional’ The US invasion plan for Iraq envisaged that only 5,000 US troops would remain in Iraq by December 2006, declassified Central Command documents show. The material also shows that the US military projected a stable, pro-US and democratic Iraq by that time. The August 2002 material was obtained by the National Security Archive (NSA). Its officials said the plans were based on delusional assumptions.were prepared by the now-retired Gen Tommy Franks and other top commanders at the time. The US currently has some 132,000 troops in the violence-torn state. ‘Completely unrealistic’ The documents – in the former of PowerPoint slides – All of these were delusions Thomas Blanton, National Security Archive Border sealed Shia cleric in Iran The documents were presented at a briefing in August 2002 – less than a year before the US invasion of Iraq in April 2003. The commanders predicted that after the fighting was over there would be a two- to three-month "stabilisation" phase, followed by an 18- to 24-month "recovery" stage. They projected that the US forces would be almost completely "re-deployed" out of Iraq at the end of the "transition" phase – within 45 months of invasion. "Completely unrealistic assumptions about a post-Saddam Iraq permeate these war plans," NSA executive director Thomas Blanton said in a statement posted on the organisation’s website. "First, they assumed that a provisional government would be in place by ‘D-Day’, then that the Iraqis would stay in their garrisons and be reliable partners, and finally that the post-hostilities phase would be a matter of mere months’," Mr Blanton said. "All of these were delusions," he added. The NSA said it received the documents last month, after making a request in 2004. The NSA is an independent research institute at George Washington University. It obtained the papers under the Freedom of Information Act.

Now, one of two things. The drafters of this presentation obviously had no cultural understanding of Iraq, that it’s really three separate peoples/cultures whose borders were drawn by outsiders, and held together by a tyrant. And that the moment the tyrant was removed, these hundreds year old factions would return to their waring, the floodgates would reopen. Or second, the administration was behind this, dictating this draft, to help sell a war that was already predisposed to happen. Seeing htat these are not dumb people, hey’re actually quite smart, I’m choosing the latter. The President was going to Iraq, pure and simple, and would do and say anything to get there.

Now what are his reasons for going into Iraq? I do believe that he truly thinks he can implement democracy in the middle east. I think it’s a necessity for him to accomplish this, as it would be the greatest thorn against non-secular Islamic states (which is ironic seeing how in the US, it’s all about religion governing). Also, access and ownership of light sweet crude for the Guild (ExxonMoblie, Chevron, etc) wouldn’t hurt either.