Year after Iraq combat declared over, mission uncertain
ANALYSIS:Bush abandons his initial blueprint for rebuilding the country in an effort to bring stability.
BY WARREN STROBEL
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS WASHINGTON - One year ago today President Bush stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln beneath a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" and announced that major combat in Iraq had ended. A year later, his administration's plans to make Iraq a democratic model for the Middle East have collided with reality. After efforts to stabilize Iraq failed, Bush has been forced to make a series of policy reversals, ditching or modifying the initial blueprint for remaking the country. In quick succession, the White House has handed the United Nations the lead in selecting an interim government, moved more tanks and heavy armor into the country, and softened a harsh policy of excluding members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime from the new Iraq. In Fallujah, the administration has turned to a former general in Saddam's army to suppress a violent uprising against the U.S.-led military occupation. The general, wise to the symbols of power in Iraq, showed up in his old uniform. In the Shiite south, the administration has been unable to crush a ragtag militia led by renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. That restoring order, reviving a ravaged economy and replacing a brutal dictatorship with a democracy is proving to be harder and costlier than Bush and many of his advisers thought it would be is testimony to how little they thought -- and planned for -- what might go wrong. "There was no debate about the wisdom of going to war," said one senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "No discussion of pros and cons, of what might happen, no planning for the unexpected. It was just something we were going to do." White House spokesmen portray the changes as prudent course corrections as they grapple with mounting U.S. casualties and persistent instability in Iraq. Critics say they represent a grudging acknowledgement that the administration's strategy and planning were flawed and its tactics have been riddled with errors that have boxed Bush in and left him few good options. It didn't have to be this way, critics inside and outside the administration say. Top Bush administration officials ignored and even disparaged pre-invasion warnings from their military, intelligence and foreign policy professionals -- warnings that proved prescient. They instead pursued a course urged by Iraqi exiles and their allies in Washington, which envisioned a joyous welcome for U.S. troops and the quick installation of a pro-American government. "The administration's plan today is exactly what they rejected in the fall of 2002 because it wasn't ideologically compatible," said David Phillips, who was an adviser to an intensive State Department-led planning effort called "The Future of Iraq Project." The results of the project were ignored by Pentagon planners, said State Department officials and other participants. It's uncertain whether a good outcome is still possible in Iraq, where U.S. troops are battling insurgencies by Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and Iraqis' support for the U.S. presence is plummeting. A caretaker government, which will take over in 60 days with limited powers, has yet to be chosen. It also remains to be seen how far Bush is willing to go in correcting course. Members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, including controversial Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi, are resisting the new approach and efforts by the U.N. envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, to exclude them from the interim government. A senior administration official deeply involved in Iraq policy, asked to comment on the recent policy changes, replied: "I don't spend much time looking in the rearview mirror. "It runs into bumps in the road from time to time... but we have a plan," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bush on Friday said, "A year ago I did give the speech from the carrier saying we had achieved an important objective, accomplished a mission, which was the removal of Saddam Hussein. "And as a result, there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq. As a result, a friend of terror has been removed and now sits in a jail," the president said. . . . ..................
The Associated Press
contributed to this report. | 
