Washington Post – Thomas Ricks looks at how the latest Pentagon report on the detainee abuse scandal focuses on the role played by military intelligence, which arguably is the branch of the Army most challenged by the insurgency in Iraq.
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Category Archives: Iraq
Iraq – Rumsfeld's War Plan Shares the Blame
Washington Post – Thomas Ricks on how Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s leadership of the Pentagon has been weighed by a jury of his peers and found somewhat wanting.
A report by a blue-ribbon panel he appointed to review the military establishment’s role in creating and handling detainee abuse problems at Abu Ghraib prison said that the Iraq war plan he played a key role in shaping helped create the conditions that led to the scandal.
The panel’s findings provide new support for two central criticisms of the Rumsfeld team’s approach in Iraq last year: that the invasion plan called for too few troops, half as many as were used in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and that the Pentagon failed to plan smartly for occupying the country after the United States defeated the Iraqi military.
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Iraq – Iraq Report: July 2004
Defense and the National Interest – An interesting, anonymous analysis of the current state of affairs in Iraq.
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Iraq – In Memoir, U.S. General Tells of Gaps in War Plans
New York Times – General Tommy Franks’ view of the war in Iraq, as published in his new book due out this week.
More from the Washington Post
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Iraq – Civil War In Iraq?
Defense and the National Interest – William S. Lind comments on the civil war in Iraq.
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Iraq – Officers Question Visibility of Army in Iraq
Washington Post – Thomas Ricks says some top U.S. military officers are questioning whether the practice of keeping U.S. troops highly visible in Iraq is doing more harm than good, challenging a key tenet of the Army’s approach to occupying the country.
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Iraq – Into the Abyss
Defense and the National Interest – Martin van Creveld predicts the future of Iraq.
Iraq – Why Iraq Will End as Vietnam Did
Defense and the National Interest – Martin van Creveld documents Moshe Dayan’s visit to Vietnam in the 1960’s and draws interesting parallels to the situation in Iraq today.
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Iraq – U.S. Army Changed by Iraq, but for Better or Worse?
Washington Post – Thomas Ricks on how fifteen months of combat in Iraq are leaving an imprint on the U.S. military. All the services are changing, but the Army especially is undergoing radical change as a result of the unexpectedly difficult occupation, in which it has suffered nearly 6,000 casualties.
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Iraq – Letter From Falluja – Home Rule
New Yorker – A fascinating look at what life is now like inside Falluja.
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Iraq – Spillover
Defense and the National Interest – William Lind comments on the war on terrorism.
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Iraq – The Iraq Handover: Lessons for Next Time
New York Post – Ralph Peters shares his lessons learned from Iraq.
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