The Story of the war

It all comes down to "mis-management" apparently.

When reading this, one would be forgiven in thinking that the only deaths were American contractors and insurgent related murders. Not much changed here then.


The undoing of the great US experiment in Iraq

IRAQ: As he prepares to leave Baghdad after two years covering Iraq, Jack Fairweather reflects on the failings of the US-led invasion which took place without a plan for the aftermath
Two years ago I rode into Basra with a convoy of British tanks feeling like a liberator.

Saddam was about to be overthrown, a massive reconstruction project begin, and democracy appeared just round the corner.

Two years on and Iraq has had its first elections but little else has turned out as expected.
The country is on the edge of civil war. For almost two years a mainly Sunni-led insurgency has pitted itself against US and Iraqi security forces and a floundering reconstruction process. The new Shia government looks set to wage a bloody war of repression in Sunni tribal areas, whilst pushing for an Islamic-style state.

Secular, moderating voices have been bullied into silence by the bombings and murders.
Many of these problems were an inevitable outcome of invading the country, although they have been magnified by a series of American mistakes and miscalculations. At the heart of Iraq's failings is the extraordinary fact that when US and British troops streamed across the Iraqi border, they did so without a plan. I leave the country wondering how the great American experiment in Iraq came undone in the heedless rush to war.

There was a plan for Iraq. In the months leading up to the invasion the US State Department held extensive discussions with Iraqi exiles, resulting in a 2,000-odd page document called the "Future of Iraq Project".

continued...

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