Beyond Obvious: Bremer Was An Idiot

Bremer & Whitehouse Cronies Never Consulted State Deptartment & Experts on Dissolution of Iraqi Army

Colin L. Powell, the secretary of state and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was never asked for advice, and was in Paris when the May 22 meeting was held. Mr. Powell, who views the decree as a major blunder, later asked Condoleezza Rice, who was serving as Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, for an explanation. “I talked to Rice and said, ‘Condi, what happened?’ ” he recalled. “And her reaction was: ‘I was surprised too, but it is a decision that has been made and the president is standing behind Jerry’s decision. Jerry is the guy on the ground.’ And there was no further debate about it.”

As a result, a quarter of a million seasoned military personnel were put out on the street with no means to support their families. They went right into the militia groups and we all know what happened next. The New York Times reported that the decision was made on March 12th.

The plan was outlined in a PowerPoint presentation that Douglas J. Feith, a senior aide to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, gave at a National Security Council meeting that Mr. Bush convened on March 12, eight days before the invasion began. Republican Guard units, the forces deemed most loyal to Mr. Hussein, were to be disarmed, detained and dismantled.

A summary can be found here. For more info: Across the Aisle

Arms And Influence has more about “Death by Powerpoint”.

The Iraq disaster did not happen because someone in the JTF-IV planning group or the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) couldn't write a good PowerPoint presentation. The problem was that anyone used PowerPoint to plan a war.

The National Security Archives at George Washington University has more Iraq War planning via Powerpoint

Overall the most egregious blunder of the Iraq war was not consulting with Colin Powell or anyone else within the State Department over these issues, and instead subscribing to the unreality of Powerpoint presentations.