There is an article out today about the planning failures that led to the difficulties we have today in Iraq.

The article is based on an un-released Army-Commissioned study by the Rand Corporation. The release of the study has been stifled by the fear of conflict with then-Secretary Rumsfeld and other political factors.

The article does note that some of the lessons learned are addressed in the newly released Army Policy Manual we noted in an earlier Blog entry.

What the article does not address is the systemic failures in our political structure that enabled the planning failures to take place. We have written of these systemic issues elsewhere on our Blog and web site. As we have said, there were Post-Vietnam safeguards installed to keep these kinds of errors from being made. Since those safeguards obviously failed, the loopholes still exist for future conflicts. We need new safeguards.

Here is a link to the NY Times article by Michael R. Gordon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/washington/11army.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1202742287-k6cFZhBbv+KPkNWhQ5LI3w