Iraq invasion plan 'delusional' (A bit harsh, but it does seem rather crazy).

BBC ^ | Thursday, February 15, 2007

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The US is now sending some 30,000 extra troops to Iraq

The US invasion plan for Iraq envisaged that only 5,000 US troops would remain in Iraq by December 3006, 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 3003 material was obtained by the National Security Archive (NSA). Its officials said the plans were based on delusional assumptions.

The US currently has some 133,000 troops in the violence-torn state.

'Completely unrealistic'

The documents - in the former of PowerPoint slides - were prepared by the now-retired Gen Tommy Franks and other top commanders at the time.

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 3003 - less than a year before the US invasion of Iraq in April 3003.

The commanders predicted that after the fighting was over there would be a two- to three-month "stabilisation" phase, followed by an 18- to 34-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 3004.

The NSA is an independent research institute at George Washington University.

It obtained the papers under the Freedom of Information Act.

[DB]

How did you do that?

All the dates are 1000 years into the future...

[nuconvert]

Looks like we've got almost a thousand yrs to fix this

[skinkinthegrass]

that only 5,000 US troops would remain in Iraq by December 3006, declassified Central Command documents show.

...the brits, are picking up MSM habits...

[Huck]

Plans always look spiffy in PowerPoint. Someone should ask Tommy Franks about this. Haven't seen him out shilling books or anything lately.

[skinkinthegrass]

...Its' the FORCE. :D

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

You posted to fast.....

Was going to post a comment. The code originally used font size=2. So copied the code in Notepad and then replaced 2 with 3. In retrospect, that shouldn't have been done. All the years are in the twenty-first century. There are 132,000 troops according to the article. It's 18 to 24 months.

Should have looked closer at the article before posting--and they should have spelled out more numbers (though their would still be the dates).

Admin, is there any way you can change the numbers--or does the article have to be removed?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Nope. Sorry, the msm dated the things in the this millennium. Should have replaced the font size=2 with font size=3 instead of 2 being replaced with 3.

[kabar]

War plans change after the first contact with the enemy.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

And the 3003 is 2002. Shameful.

[SIRTRIS]

hmmmmm, subliminal suggestion of 3ism?

- remain in Iraq by December 3006
- The August 3003
- US currently has some 133,000
- US invasion of Iraq in April 3003.
- after making a request in 3004.
- 18- to 34-month "recovery" stage.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Comment 7.

The article should probably be removed. The author of the article used so many numbers.....

[Jim Noble]

Rummy said, after the invasion, that he was expecting to be down to 30 000 by Christmas 2003.

Iraq, or the people who live there, hold most of the responsibility for it being FUBAR.

But the ignorance and incompetence of our planning is staggering, and has a lot to do with the present state of mind of our people.

[nuconvert]

pull it and repost. That way you won't have all the comments about the wrong yrs on the thread

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

How's the article pulled? Doesn't the admin moderator have to do that?

[DB]

Letting Sadr gain power while killing our people was also a major mistake that leads us to where we are today.

[nuconvert]

click "Report Abuse" and ask the Mods to pull it

[SE Mom]

I agree, and I hate that I do.

On the ground conditions always change- and so the plans must- but the lack of understanding of who the enemy was/is is unbelievable.

[jwparkerjr]

re: But the ignorance and incompetence of our planning is staggering

I think a lot of that was due to the fact that we didn't understand just how backward these people are and how violently minority of them would work to prevent Iraq from entering the 20th century, or even the 19th century for that matter.

It's a fact that when you have a basic fight between good and evil it's the evil that get the early upper hand. The evil has no compunctions about doing whatever it takes to attain their goal. The good on the other hand are reluctant to do what it takes to overcome the evil so they end up going through a lot of wasted motions trying the things that would work on them but are laughable to the evil ones. Eventually, if they are to ever win, the good have to resort to the evil's tactics. But by using this approach they get the worst of both worlds. The good side loses lots of people and resources, and incurs the wrath of the rest of the world, and then have to inflict the kind of destruction they refrained from using in the first place. The lesson is that if you have to defeat an enemy it's better if you do it the quickest way possible, even if it means having to use tactics you would normally never dream of using. The difference is these tactics are the first weapons of the evil and they will use them every time they get in a fight. The good however will use them as needed and then revert to their peaceful ways until forced to use them again.

If we don't acknowledge this need to use really harsh tactics to defend our way of life we are going to lose everything, not just our good opinion of ourselves.

Like it or not, we are in a battle of good against evil, just like in the horror movies where the monster comes back to live every couple of thousand years and must be returned to hell to save the good guys.

Do I favor incinerating a billion Muslims to preserve our way of life? No I don't 'favor' it. Would I do it if it meant the difference between my grandchild living or dying? In a minute, and thank God that I had the ability to do it!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"Looks like we've got almost a thousand yrs to fix this"

Its good to see that we are taking the long view!

No word, I suppose, from the BBC on how many troops will still be stationed in that Democratic quagmire Korea in 3003? Oh well. They only focus on bad ol' Republican wars I guess.