Even as the Pentagon asserts that it had the perfect strategy, it has also quietly moved to amend its plans for administering the peace. Just two months ago, the Pentagon was backing a plan to reduce the number of American troops to little more than one division by September, down from the 145,000 troops or so there now to perhaps one-third or fewer than that. This was based on the assumption that the situation in Iraq would quickly stabilize and that other allied nations would quickly contribute forces — neither of which has panned out. So that troop-reduction plan has been put aside.
As Gen. Tommy R. Franks, who headed the Central Command during the Iraq war, told Congress this week, the new plan is to maintain current troop levels in Iraq for the foreseeable future. That is a major change in the projected postwar force plan. As a result of the increased force levels, cost estimates of the Iraq occupation have roughly doubled, to almost $4 billion a month.
A cake walk... Right....
Unless, of course, the qWagmire is not the result of bad planning, but actually ... The Plan.