From the National Security Archive:

Newly declassified State Department documents show that government experts warned the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in early 2003 about "serious planning gaps for post-conflict public security and humanitarian assistance," well before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

In a February 7, 2003, memo to Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, three senior Department officials noted CENTCOM's "focus on its primary military objectives and its reluctance to take on 'policing' roles," but warned that "a failure to address short-term public security and humanitarian assistance concerns could result in serious human rights abuses which would undermine an otherwise successful military campaign, and our reputation internationally." The memo adds "We have raised these issues with top CENTCOM officials."

From the Washington Post (registration may be required):

The Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the fight against terrorism, limiting Congress's ability to oversee spending, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released yesterday.

From Time, a long and detailed analysis of how Saddam planned the post-invasion insurgency, how it was organized, and how Rumsfeld is failing to fight it effectively:

More than a dozen current and former intelligence officers knowledgeable about Iraq spoke with TIME in recent weeks to share details about the conflict. They voiced their growing frustration with a war that they feel was not properly anticipated by the Bush Administration, a war fought with insufficient resources, a war that almost all of them now believe is not winnable militarily. "We're good at fighting armies, but we don't know how to do this," says a recently retired four-star general with Middle East experience. "We don't have enough intelligence analysts working on this problem. The Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA] puts most of its emphasis and its assets on Iran, North Korea and China. The Iraqi insurgency is simply not top priority, and that's a damn shame."

It's an enlightening and frightening article. In my opinion Time is usually a glossy, superficial rag, but I might change my mind if they keep running pieces like this.
- posted by truthspeaker    Comments

Church of England bishops have suggested Christian leaders apologise to Muslim leaders for the war in Iraq.

A report from a working group of bishops says the war was one of a "long litany of errors" relating to Iraq.

As the government is unlikely to offer an apology, a meeting of religious leaders would provide a "public act of institutional repentance", it said.

The report, entitled Countering Terrorism: Power, Violence and Democracy Post 9/11, was written by a working group of the Church of England's House of Bishops.

The Church of England has criticised the war, saying it was not a "just war".

But a dilemma now exists for those within the Church - to pull out of Iraq without a stable democracy in place would be irresponsible, but to stay suggests collusion with a "gravely mistaken" war, the bishops said.

But if collusion was a necessary evil, the report says, there needs to be a degree of public recognition of the West's responsibility for the present situation.

The last two paragraphs sum up the current situation succinctly. We all know the Iraq war was a mistake, that our governments lied to us about why they were doing it, and that the planning for it was as incompetent as anything seen in Vietnam. But with the Iraqi army and police disbanded, the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops may be as bad for Iraq as their invasion was. But any attempt by the US coalition to enable security and self-government in Iraq will fail if the US has no credibility. As long as the men who lied to us and bungled the invasion are still in power, the Iraqis know they cannot trust us. Acknowledging that we did the wrong thing at the wrong time with the wrong plan just might help us regain some of that credibility. If our "leaders" will not do so, then the people must do it for them.

It would be easy to draw parallels between the federal government's failure to heed advance warnings that Hurricane Katrina could cause massive flooding in New Orleans to its failure to heed advance warnings of the Iraq insurgency, and it would be easy to draw parallels between George Bush's appointment of the unqualified Michael Brown to head FEMA with his appointment of unqualified individuals to various national security positions. But rather than go into that, I'm just putting up a link to the American Red Cross where you can make a donation to help victims of the hurricane.