Toppled in Baghdad, clueless in Whitehall (British general reveals no postwar planning for Iraq)

[sabra]

Source: UK Sunday Times

Toppled in Baghdad, clueless in Whitehall
For the first time, the British general at the heart of postwar planning for Iraq tells Heidi Kingstone of the chaos in London and Washington

In early March 2003, as Britain and America prepared to invade Iraq, a casually dressed Tony Blair unexpectedly walked into the room at 10 Downing Street where Major General Tim Cross had just briefed Alastair Campbell, Blair’s communications chief. Cross was Britain’s point man in Washington on postwar planning and he was not getting a “warm feeling” about it. Campbell was clearly uneasy. For the next half-hour Cross briefed Blair.

The heart of the matter was simple: postwar planning was completely incoherent. “The plan was, we do not need a plan,” said Cross last week.

...

What frightened him was the Washington neoconservatives’ certainty that once the Americans and British arrived, Iraqi oil revenue would rebuild the country: “Too many people lost themselves in the luxury of political theory and forgot or chose to ignore the practical realities of what was actually going to happen on the ground, and that was at the heart of the planning blight.

“The cabal in Washington convinced themselves that they didn’t need a plan because everything would be fine once Saddam Hussein was toppled . . . There were few dissenting voices; you either agreed with their paradigm or you were frozen out.”

He added: “What they didn’t seem to understand was that you cannot bring true democracy to these fragile places in less than a generation or two.”



Read more: http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2701350.ece

[hobbit709]

1. Even Hitler had plans for the conquered territory.

True, they were not nice plans but at least he had plans.

[pscot]

2. I guess we should be grateful

that the neo-cons were less thorough than the Nazis.

[Igel]

5. The plans they talked about are pretty as the OP put them.

There was no desire to remove the bureaucracy, the police, the army. The assumption was that the Baathist technocrats from around rung 4 or so down would simply stay in place.

Saddam would go. His reports would go. Probably the next layer or so would go. Politically important Baathists would go. But the military, police, etc., etc. would report to work as expected.

The reporters knew this. They just didn't like knowing it. And the day Baghdad fell, none of the civil servants, police, or military showed up for work. Meaning that the only plan they had crumbled immediately.

Over a month later the army still hadn't showed up. Well, some did, but only for paychecks. Report to barracks? Nope. Police report for work? Nope. Ministry folk show up? Nope.

The * plan didn't ever get off the ground.

[RC]

3. Illegally Invade a country, topple the head, dissolve the rest and disband the army --

and think everything is going to be fine? That is what this administration did to Iraq.

[Dover]

4. No exit strategy because it was planned as an OCCUPATION..n/t

[SquireJons]

6. We have a winner... n/t

[LynnTheDem]

7. What the good general seems to not understand is the FACT that you

cannot "bring true democracy" by force.

DUHHHHH.