Iraq III: Quotes du Jour

From Thomas Ricks' new "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq":

[The invasion] was based on perhaps the worst war plan in American history that confused removing Iraq’s regime with the far more difficult task of changing the entire country. . . . The result was that the U.S. effort resembled a banana republic coup d’état more than a full-scale war plan that reflected the ambition of a great power to alter the politics of a crucial region of the world.

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An after-action review from the Third Infantry Division underscores the Pentagon's paucity of postwar planning, stating that "there was no guidance for restoring order in Baghdad, creating an interim government, hiring government and essential services employees, and ensuring that the judicial system was operational." And an end-of-tour report by a colonel assigned to the Coalition Provisional Authority memorably summarized his office's work as "pasting feathers together, hoping for a duck."