'Cobra II' How the Iraq War Was Planned and Launched

[kpete]

Books of The Times | 'Cobra II'
How the Iraq War Was Planned and Launched

By SEAN NAYLOR
Published: March 28, 2006
...............

It makes for unsettling reading. In richly detailed, almost dispassionate prose, the authors present a damning indictment of the Bush administration's national security team.

Mr. Gordon and General Trainor recount in granular detail the behind-the-scenes maneuvering as the invasion plan came together, making it clear not only that by the end of 2001 the administration's focus had shifted from Afghanistan to Baghdad, but also that planning for an invasion was already at an advanced stage.

The authors contrast the feverish preparations for war with Iraq taking place in 2002 at the Pentagon and the United States Central Command under Gen. Tommy R. Franks with the misleading statements emanating from senior officials. "I have no war plans on my desk," President Bush told a May 23, 2002, news conference. Given that planning for the war had been under way for six months, "the president's statement was true in only the most literal and trivial sense," the authors write. General Franks, the authors note, went even further. When a radio reporter asked him that same month how many troops he would need to invade Iraq, he replied that Secretary Rumsfeld "has not yet asked me to put together a plan to do that." If even half of what Mr. Gordon and General Trainor report about the state of planning by late May 2002 is true, this was a lie.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/28/books/28nayl.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[sinkingfeeling]

1. This author was on the Daily Show last night.