Army Slams Iraq Occupation Plan

clipped from www.nytimes.com Soon after American forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, Gen. Tommy R. Franks surprised senior Army officers by revamping the Baghdad-based military command. The decision reflected the assumption by General Franks, the top American commander for the Iraq invasion, that the major fighting was over. But according to a new Army history, the move put the military effort in the hands of a short-staffed headquarters led by a newly promoted three-star general, and was made over the objections of the Army’s vice chief of staff. “The move was sudden and caught most of the senior commanders in Iraq unaware,” states the history, which adds that the staff for the new headquarters was not initially “configured for the types of responsibilities it received.”

Of course, Franks wasn't the only one who insisted the "major fighting was over." The President himself gave a big speech from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, where he said almost those same words exactly; "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

Tommy Franks wasn't the only one with a terribly simplistic view of the occupation of Iraq. Of course, he'll take the flack for it. Everyone's busy pretending GWB doesn't exist now.