No planning for Iraq

Old news from new sources.

British Generals, now that the UK has abandoned Basra, are telling the harsh truths about the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

The U.S. invaded Iraq without any plans for a post-invasion Iraq.

I've heard this truth in many forms from many sources. The latest sources are the highest ranking U.K. generals involved prior to the March 2003 invasion.

From Reuters

"He [Rumsfeld] didn't want to hear that message. The U.S. had already convinced themselves that Iraq would emerge reasonably quickly as a stable democracy," Cross told the Sunday Mirror.

"Anybody who tried to tell them anything that challenged that idea -- they simply shut it out," Cross, the most senior British officer involved in planning post-war Iraq, added.

His comments echoed those of General Mike Jackson, head of the British army during the invasion, who was quoted by The Daily Telegraph on Saturday as describing Rumsfeld's approach as "intellectually bankrupt."

He might have added morally bankrupt.

More details from the Australian

Major General Tim Cross, the top British officer involved in post-war Iraq planning, said he raised serious concerns with then US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that the country could descend into chaos.

But Mr Rumsfeld "ignored" or "dismissed" his warnings, he told the Sunday Mirror newspaper.

In 2003, General Cross was the deputy head of the coalition's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

"Right from the very beginning, we were all very concerned about the lack of detail that had gone into the post-war plan - and there is no doubt that Rumsfeld was at the heart of that process," he said.

If Rumsfeld was the heart of it all, who was the soul?