Army Buried Report Critical of Iraq Planning

Study rips Bush, agencies on poorly managed rebuilding
By Lucas Laursen,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 11, 2008 10:29 AM CST
Army Buried Report Critical of Iraq Planning
A U.S. soldier secures the scene of a car bombing in central Baghdad, Iraq Monday, Feb. 11, 2008. Twin car bombs targeted a meeting of U.S.-allied Sunni tribal leaders near the compound of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politicians Monday in Baghdad, killing at least 14 people civilians and wounding...   (Associated Press)

A federally funded report harshly critical of President Bush's management of rebuilding efforts in Iraq was deliberately buried by the Army, reports the New York Times. The 2005 assessment by the RAND Corp. accused Bush of failing to smooth over interagency rivalries. It criticized the "uneven quality" of a State Department plan for reconstruction and said the military had a “fundamental misunderstanding” of necessities for securing postwar Iraq.

“Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff,” the report said. A nonclassified version of the report intended for civilian consumption, to stimulate debate on better preparation for similar situations, was never released. An Army spokesman said the assessment looked at broader issues than what was "desired by the Army." (More US Army stories.)

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