October 12, 2005
YOU HAVE TO CHANGE REGIMES BEFORE YOU CAN NATION BUILD:
CIA review faults prewar plans (John Diamond, 10/11/05, USA TODAY)
A newly released report published by the CIA rebukes the Bush administration for not paying enough attention to prewar intelligence that predicted the factional rivalries now threatening to split Iraq.Policymakers worried more about making the case for the war, particularly the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, than planning for the aftermath, the report says. The report was written by a team of four former CIA analysts led by former deputy CIA director Richard Kerr.
"In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program), where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right," they write.
Ironic? The point was to sell the war. Bogus WMD info helped. Tough aftermath predictions hurt. Where's the irony? Posted by Orrin Judd at October 12, 2005 10:18 AM
OK, maybe your remark is humorous in a quirky contrarian way (which is important), but the fact is Bush and Company was caught flat-footed, by the "insurrection". Who would have thought the Sunni were so stupid?
BTW the War was already sold on 9/11. All he really needed was to show that Saddam gave refuge to one terrorist and had ignored the UN resolutions and the related Gulf War I ceasefire.
Posted by: h-man at October 12, 2005 10:43 AMh:
They weren't selling it to Americans. Blair and Powell asked to use WMD to try and get the Brits and UN to agree too.
Governments aren't capable of thinking ahead as far as after a war, that's why we've biffed every one.
Posted by: oj at October 12, 2005 10:49 AM"...prewar intelligence that predicted the factional rivalries now threatening to split Iraq." Wrong on that count too, no? Some Sunni don't want to play, but that leaves, what, 85%-plus on-board. Some "split". Wonder what the intel read says about "splits" in France.
Posted by: Luciferous at October 12, 2005 11:37 AM