A Blueprint for Failure in Iraq
By Tom Tomorrow got his hands on a declassified slide presentation given to Bush and Rumsfeld by the US Central Command in the Fall of 2002.
Some notable excerpts:
-By Spring of 2005, they expected to have 25,000 troops left in Iraq.
-By the end of 2006, they expected only 5,000 troops to be left in Iraq.
-Oppositional groups will work with us
-DoS will promote creation of a broad-based, credible provisional government- prior to D-Day
-Operations in Afghanistan transition to Phase III (minimal air support over Afghanistan)
In other words: greeted as liberators, small troop force, long-live President Chalabi, and forget about Afghanistan.
In all honesty, I think the problems we have run into in Iraq were inevitable, however the supreme arrogance and stupidity with which this war was fought greatly exacerbated the chaos.
Much more at the National Security Archive
(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)