Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning

I was just reading a story about the burying of a study by the United States Army,of what needed to be done in post-war Iraq, to make the mission a success.

The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the planning for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret. That is what happened to a detailed study of the planning for postwar Iraq prepared for the Army by the RAND Corporation, a federally financed center that conducts research for the military.

After 18 months of research, RAND submitted a report in the summer of 2005 called “Rebuilding Iraq.” RAND researchers provided an unclassified version of the report along with a secret one, hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts. But the study’s wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key.

The report was very critical of "civilians" from the President on down, involved in the underestimation of the violence, the reconstruction costs, and generally everything that has happened since "Mission Accomplished" was declared. The study should be published and widely disseminated so that "someone", "somewhere" learns from these mistakes, so they do not occur again!!


buried