A 2005 RAND Corporation study on Iraq concluded that the occupation turned into a clusterfuck because the Bush administration failed to plan for … anything.  So who could have predicted that said administration would bury the report?

That is what happened to a detailed study of the planning for postwar Iraq prepared for the Army by the RAND Corporation, a federally financed center that conducts research for the military.

After 18 months of research, RAND submitted a report in the summer of 2005 called “Rebuilding Iraq.” RAND researchers provided an unclassified version of the report along with a secret one, hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts.

But the study’s wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key.

You’ll find out who fucked up what after the jump.

The study chided President Bush - and by implication Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served as national security adviser when the war was planned - as having failed to resolve differences among rival agencies. “Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff,” it said.

The Dear Leader and the Condibot fucked up … does this surprise anyone?

The Defense Department led by Donald H. Rumsfeld was given the lead in overseeing the postwar period in Iraq despite its “lack of capacity for civilian reconstruction planning and execution.”

Must have been too many unknown unknowns for Rummy.

The State Department led by Colin L. Powell produced a voluminous study on the future of Iraq that identified important issues but was of “uneven quality” and “did not constitute an actionable plan.”

Once again - it’s the Bush administration. They could fuck up a two car funeral.  And supply the corpse, natch.

Gen. Tommy R. Franks, whose Central Command oversaw the military operation in Iraq, had a “fundamental misunderstanding” of what the military needed to do to secure postwar Iraq, the study said.

Do you suppose he knew the difference between Sunni and Shia?  Bet he does now.

One serious problem the study described was the Bush administration’s assumption that the reconstruction requirements would be minimal. There was also little incentive to challenge that assumption, the report said.

The disincentive was that Cheney would shoot you in the face.

Once again, cynics, we have a stunning example of administration incompetence to accompany Katrina, the loss of Afghanistan, and the failure to protect us from killer spinach.   Thanks George!

Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning [New York Times]