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Ear to the Ground

Prewar Slide Show Exposes Iraq Fantasy

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Posted on Feb 14, 2007

Before the invasion of Iraq, Gen. Tommy Franks gathered with his top advisers to review their plans. The recently released slides from that meeting offer an insight into the startling optimism of the men who designed the war.  Four years post-invasion, the commanders expected Iraq to have a fully representative government, a functioning army and as few as 5,000 U.S. troops. Whoops!


New York Times:

When Gen. Tommy R. Franks and his top officers gathered in August 2002 to review an invasion plan for Iraq, it reflected a decidedly upbeat vision of what the country would look like four years after Saddam Hussein was ousted from power.

A broadly representative Iraqi government would be in place. The Iraqi Army would be working to keep the peace. And the United States would have as few as 5,000 troops in the country.

Military planning slides obtained by the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act outline the command’s video projection of the stable, pro-American and democratic Iraq that was to be.

The general optimism and some details of General Franks’ planning session have been disclosed in the copious postwar literature. But the once classified slides provide a firsthand look at how far the violent reality of Iraq today has deviated from assumptions that once laid the basis for an exercise in pre-emptive war.

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By Quy Tran, February 15, 2007 at 5:18 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

How many troops died for the stars of generals shine ?

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By Dale Headley, February 15, 2007 at 4:36 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

The basic flaw in the optimistic reasoning of the generals was that they naively assumed that the Bush Administration had any interest whatsoever in the welfare of the Iraqi people.  The reconstruction, the provision of essential services, the existence of jobs, and the security of the streets that were essential elements in post war planning for success were little more than an afterthought to the Bushies. A phalanx of Inexperienced, loyal, young Republicans were recruited to attend to the affairs of the country.  And what did they do?  They headed for the safety of the palace in the Green Zone and partied around the pool as Baghdad crumbled outside the gates.

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By GW=MCHammered, February 15, 2007 at 2:12 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

The Bush Plan exposed, unmasked and debunked. Finally!

That’s the problem with blind optimism and battlement governing: blind governing. And now they will do the same with Iran. What is it they say about making the same mistake over and over but expecting different results? Yeah. And its address is the White House.

How much more need be revealed before we take bushelled action?

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By George Birch, February 15, 2007 at 1:02 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

The Iraq war plan was; Ill Conceived,poorly planned and badly implemented. What else needs to be added?

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By Jim Yell, February 15, 2007 at 11:07 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

The big Brass are supposed to be educated. How any person with any degree of education, could be that silly? We have thousands of years of recorded history for the area and we couldn’t figure out that it would be a hard slog. Foriegn invasion of a country of fundmentalist religous.

These idiots are so focused on their arrogance, conceit, greed for power, personal invulnerablity that they have behaved like teenagers and not very bright ones at that.

Alice would have been right at home.

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By Steve Hammons, February 15, 2007 at 10:19 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Now that we know about the lies of Douglas Feith and many others in the Bush administration, could it be that Tommy Franks was also involved?

Many experts on occupation after war said there would be problems with Rumsfeld’s approach to post-invasion Iraq.

Was the disorder and chaos there intentional to provide a reason for the US to stay there indefinitely?

For more on this, see:

‘Mistakes’ or ‘plans’ in 9/11, Iraq invasion and occupation, War on Terror?

Steve Hammons
American Chronicle
July 11, 2006

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=11401

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By vet240, February 15, 2007 at 2:50 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

It’s obvious that someone in the White House asked the military to develope a strategy for invasion, cooptation, and restructuring of Iraq.

I’m sure those persons heard what they wanted. A Gung Ho General looking for another star or two.

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield were eager to go. I can just see them rubbing their hands in glee as one says to the other, “Now we need some reasons to go!”

I love the assumption that we would be successful as an occuping force, after our experiences in Vietnam.

The beauty of their plan. Everybody gets some. The Generals more stars, The president, vengence for his daddy and the glory of being a “War President” (something he didn’t have the stomach for in Vietnam). Cheney and Rumsfield get cash!

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