Army Buried Unclassified Study Faulting Bush Administration's Iraq Planning

New York Times:

The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the planning for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret.

That is what happened to a detailed study of the planning for postwar Iraq prepared for the Army by the RAND Corporation, a federally financed center that conducts research for the military.

After 18 months of research, RAND submitted a report in the summer of 2005 called "Rebuilding Iraq." RAND researchers provided an unclassified version of the report along with a secret one, hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts.

But the study's wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key.

A review of the lengthy report -- a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times -- shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war. That assessment parallels the verdicts of numerous former officials and independent analysts

Read the entire article here.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[loki]

01:21 AM on 02/12/2008

http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/98-Rumsfeld-Iraq.pdf

Here is another document showing how Iraq invasion was totally preplanned. Its signed by William Crystal, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and more of the Iraq dream team that filled the media with false statements just moments after 9/11. So why surprised at anything the Bush administration or the war machine does?

[surfcitysteven]

11:39 PM on 02/11/2008

Planning? You insinuate that there was planning here. There are not enough idiots and monkeys to have come up with this "plan". "OK guys, here's the plan, get out there and fuck it up! Bad! Take this victory and fuck it up! Yeah right."

[paixa3]

03:03 PM on 02/11/2008

Just another wet dream by george, military planning.

SCREW BUSH.

[nevergiveup]

02:56 PM on 02/11/2008

Where's the patriotic American who works at Rand who will leak the document. I'm sick of all the secrecy and pretense that anything about this illegal invasion was warranted or in the best interest of the USA.

[lexicoscott]

02:30 PM on 02/11/2008

Hillary did it!!!

[Irons]

02:28 PM on 02/11/2008

During 'Nam, Bush went AWOL from Nat'l Guard so he could snort 'n drink his way to impotent oblivion.

A few years later his Dad rewarded him with an oil company, which, under W's guidance, slipped into the dumpster like a bucket of fecund oysters.

W then was given a baseball team and he screwed that up royally.

[vipersdad]

01:17 PM on 02/11/2008

Geez...shock of shocks.... the Army that serves this president is being secretive with respect to criticism? I am stunned!

On another front- How much do you think they paid the RAND corporation for this incisive and revealing study? Here's a budget-cutting idea....they could have hired a bunch of high-school interns to draw those same conclusions. Bloggers and some of the better reporters in the media have been saying this stuff as far back as 2003.

[MajorKong]

01:15 PM on 02/11/2008

That picture of Bush standing in front of and behind the giant Plan For Victory signs has to be one of the most Orwellian images I've ever seen.

[Ihaveadream]

12:06 PM on 02/11/2008

Rand Corporation, Zalmay Khalizad, Paul Wolfowitz - connect the dots. Google those names. This was the same non-profit think tank who gave us such great advice on SW Asia and Vietnam, remember?

Put it in the category of MITRE, AEI and Heritage Foundation. All revolving door operations getting millions in non competitive contracts from the government/military. Zalmay worked for Rand - he also worked for Wolfie - Zalmay's wife works for Rand - Wolfie now is at AEI.

[Dendroica]

12:31 PM on 02/11/2008

Here's the problem- since the Rand report was so unfavorable, it blows your arguments totally out of the water.

[Moshe]

11:05 AM on 02/11/2008

"Army Buried Unclassified Study Faultilng Bush Administration's Iraq Planning"

Here's the thing about the truth: Ignoring it, or in this case hiding it, doesn't change it.

The truth is the truth, and the truth has consequences whether acknowledged or not.

We continue to live in a state of denial and delusion at our own peril.

The reality is, that despite the foaming at the mouth rhetoric to the contrary, the Bush Adminstration's record on defense and security has been shockingly bad and they have made us far less secure.

In just a few years, the Bush Adminstration has managed to inflame anti-American hatred to alarming and unprecedented levels, while simultaneously destroying our Nation's military resources in a pointless war in Iraq, bankrupting us, and substituted high-visibility but mostly worthless "security" stunts for genuine security here at home. The airport "security" is demonstrably a sad joke even based on the tests of U.S. agents at these sites.

The incompetence of the Bush Adminstration has been shocking, but it is even more so dangerous.

We need a strong defense force, but we need it here at home. We need state-of-the-art security, not just more phoney security stunts and excuses to further destroy the civil liberties of citizens. And most of all, we need trusted allies in the World to obtain reliable intelligence and support.

The Bush/Cheney Adminstration has failed miserably on all counts, and in doing so, left the U.S. in a dangerously precarious position going into the future.

[RedRooster]

10:56 AM on 02/11/2008

Bush administration policy toward Iraq:

Privatize the profits and socialize the costs.

[mellene]

10:07 AM on 02/11/2008

About the only way Powell can now redeem himself even slightly is to renounce the Republican position of taking us needlessly into war and ruined the economy by doing so.

[Sumocat]

09:21 AM on 02/11/2008

We needed a study to show that Rummy's "be welcomed as liberators" plan was faulty? I thought President Bush pretty much proved that when he said "every war plan looks good on paper."
http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2006/03/every-war-plan-looks-good-on-paper.html

[paixa3]

09:06 AM on 02/11/2008

Powell should be in Den Haag with the rest of the traitors to the American citizens.

[ibsteve2u]

08:47 AM on 02/11/2008

'“The Army leaders who were involved did not want to take the chance of increasing the friction with Secretary Rumsfeld,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because he did not want to alienate senior military officials.'

That summarizes why "running the government like a business" is such a fallacy when the business model used is the current American one: "Kiss ass", or you're not a "team player".

The inability to tell the truth is a deadly flaw in military organizations.

[MajorKong]

09:57 AM on 02/11/2008

Running the military like a corporation has been a fallacy since the days of McNamara. Corporations exist to make a profit. A military is not a profit-making enterprise.