White House disputes U.S. lacked planning on Iraq - Yahoo! News

Typical white wash from the press: The problem wasn't lack of planning, the problem was that the decision was already taken, BEFORE the congress vote or the UN inspections! -- law

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Sunday there was 'significant' postwar planning for
Iraq and disputed the characterization of a memo produced for British Prime Minister
Tony Blair eight months before the invasion that expressed concerns about a long occupation.


The briefing paper concluded that the U.S. military was not preparing adequately for what the memo predicted would be a 'protracted and costly' postwar occupation of Iraq, The Washington Post reported in Sunday's editions.

'We disagree with the characterization. There was significant postwar planning,' David Almacy, a White House spokesman, said.

'More importantly, the memo in question was written eight months before the war began -- there was significant postwar planning in the time that elapsed,' he said.

The memo showed that top British officials saw the Bush administration as inevitably deciding to go to war, but said 'little thought' had been given to 'the aftermath and how to shape it,' the Post said.

Blair's staff produced the eight-page July 21, 2002, memo in preparation for the prime minister's meeting with his national security staff two days later at Downing Street.

'A postwar occupation of Iraq could lead to a protracted and costly nation-building exercise,' the memo said."

White House disputes U.S. lacked planning on Iraq - Yahoo! News: