Iraq II: Excerpt du Jour on the War

The fifith of 20 excerpts from "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq" by Thomas Ricks:

"History will record that America's strategy for fighting terrorism was a good strategy, that the plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom was a good plan -- and that the execution of that plan by our young men and women in uniform was unequalled in its excellence by anything in the annals of war," Gen. [Tommy] Franks asserted in his memoir, American Soldier.

It now seems more likely that history's judgment will be that the U.S. invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003 was based on perhaps the worst war plan in American history. It was a campaign plan for a few battles, not a plan to prevail and secure victory. Its incompleteness helped created the conditions for the difficult occupation that followed. The invasion is of interest now mainly for its role in creating these problems.

In the spring of 2003 the U.S. military fought the battle it wanted to fight, mistakenly believing it would be the only battle it faced. This was a failure of thinking, and planning, and the first of several strategic missteps that would place the U.S. occupation of Iraq on a foundation of sand.

© 2006, Thomas E. Ricks. All rights reserved.