WASHINGTON (AFP) -
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has implicitly admitted the Pentagon (news - web sites) had no specific plans for handling a widespread insurgency in the aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), but still insisted US pre-war planning was "good." Rumsfeld also suggested the controversy over missing Iraqi explosives will probably amount to no more than a storm in a teacup and compared it to other oversold stories that circulated during the war.
The remarks, made on Tueday in an interview with Cincinnati, Ohio, radio station, came amid a barrage of charges from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) and his aides that the White House had failed to adequately plan for the possibility of a guerrilla war in Iraq.
"The postwar plan ... was designed to see that they were not able to destroy their oil wells, that they were not able to blow up their bridges, that they did not have massive humanitarian crisis with internally displaced people and refugees and food crisis, and that the war was conducted in a speedy way so that it would not run the risk of destabilizing neighboring countries," Rumsfeld said when asked to comment on the accusations.
more:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1520&ncid=1520&e=2&u=/afp/20041027/pl_afp/us_iraq_planning_041027084229Rummy says they prematurely "retired" former Army chief of staff General Eric Shinseki, are dealing with insurgent problem on an ad hoc basis, comparing the museum looting to the missing explosives, etc. :eyes: