In The Atlantic this month, James Fallows writes about Iraq, and the perceived lack of a plan for the post war period. (Hey, I used to work with his wife. Cool.) I haven't read the article yet, but I have the issue and it's in the stack.
This article in the Washington Post sort of sums up Fallow's piece. It seems that "many government agencies -- the Army, the CIA, and the State Department among others" were working on plans for post war Iraq, but the administration systematically ignored them. Some shocking revelations:
♦ In 2002, Congress appropriated $5 million to fund the "Future of Iraq" project, headed by State Department veteran Thomas Warrick and designed to plan for the aftermath of war. Gathering Iraq experts and Iraqi exiles into 17 working groups, the project issued 13 reports, each addressing a potential postwar problem. But when former general Jay Garner was named to run postwar Iraq, Rumsfeld told him not to bother reading the project's recommendations and ordered him to fire Warrick.
It's very sad, and potentially tragic, that stories like these don't get much big media attention (and by that I mean television), instead people turn on Diane Sawyer and watch her ask Howard Dean's wife over and over again if he has a temper. Actual questions: "What do you guys fight about? Does your husband have a temper? Does he lose his temper very often?"
