Reply #21: They did it right (at first) in Afghanistan because... [View All]

[HawkerHurricane]

they used the existing military plan*, not some PNAC rewrite by a bunch of gamers who never wore a uniform.
They rewrote it later, that's why it's a mess now.
And Iraq, they wrote themeselves, because they are convinced they know more than guys who spent thier lives planning such things.

*There is a office in the Pentagon, whose name I do not know, that does nothing but writed warplans. They have plans for everything: How to invade Bermuda, what to do if Japan attack Hawaii again, how to deal with a combined Canada/Mexico invasion... It's what this office DOES. They write the plans, they update the plans, they dust off the ones that look likely...
In the years between WW1 and WW2, this office wrote a series of plans codenamed RAINBOW. Just before WW2 broke out, RAINBOW 5 was written. In RAINBOW, all opposing countries were color coded: Japan was orange, Germany black, China yellow, England red, France blue, U.S. green, communist uprising in U.S. white... everything had a plan and a color. When the war broke out, the U.S. Navy followed Warplan Orange almost to the letter. (The Army, under MacAurther, made a quick improvised plan to support the Navy... against Germany, the plan had to be majorly rewritten).