NYT:A Prewar Slide Show Cast Iraq in Rosy Hues

[cal04]

When Gen. Tommy R. Franks and his top officers gathered in August 2002 to review an invasion plan for Iraq, it reflected a decidedly upbeat vision of what the country would look like four years after Saddam Hussein was ousted from power

A broadly representative Iraqi government would be in place. The Iraqi Army would be working to keep the peace. And the United States would have as few as 5,000 troops in the country.

Military planning slides obtained by the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act outline the command’s video projection of the stable, pro-American and democratic Iraq that was to be.

The general optimism and some details of General Franks’ planning session have been disclosed in the copious postwar literature. But the once classified slides provide a firsthand look at how far the violent reality of Iraq today has deviated from assumptions that once laid the basis for an exercise in pre-emptive war.

(snip)
A series of ad hoc decisions and strategy changes followed as the insurgency grew and security deteriorated. A new military plan is now being put into effect, which the White House asserts may yet salvage a positive outcome. Almost four years after the invasion, however, the “stable democratic Iraqi government” the United States once hoped for seems to exist only in the command’s old planning slides.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/washington/15military.html?hp&ex=1171515600&en=9b0770703f6da0ca&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[tridim]

1. Iraq turned out exactly how we predicted,

and now they're using that result as a reason to stay.

It's amazing that anyone still believes we're the nutballs.

[grytpype]

2. 5,000 troops, eh?

I would say they were just a wee bit off!