Iraq war planning 'intellectually bankrupt': British general

[Janett_Reno]

Iraq war planning 'intellectually bankrupt': British general

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usiraqbr...IZwR9hU1rjOrgF

A retired British general who led his country's forces into Iraq called the Pentagon's planning after the war "intellectually bankrupt," in comments to The Washington Post published Saturday.

Retired general Mike Jackson put the blame for the current bloodletting and sectarian violence in Iraq onto the civilian leadership of the US military.

"I'm not saying (former defense secretary) Donald Rumsfeld is stupid, far from it," he said. "But the intellectual grasp of the complexity and breadth of what this campaign was going to be about, it seems to be it wasn't there."

Jackson said the Pentagon's post-war plan was "intellectually bankrupt" because it sent too few troops to Iraq and made more poor decisions after the invasion, like disbanding the Iraqi army and purging Baathists from the government.

"The Pentagon leadership thought that all that was necessary is to take the head off this regime, put a new head on, and somehow everything's fine," he said. "Well, it's much more complex."

He declined, however, to call the war a failure.

"I am not saying that Iraq's a busted flush -- no way," he said. "That Iraq has failed? It's too soon to call that."