Maybe a Coverup Would Help

The Army asked the RAND Corporation to do a kind of lessons-learned report on Iraq soon after the invasion. In the summer of 2005, after 18 months of study, "Rebuilding Iraq" was done. RAND submitted a classified version and an unclassified version "hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts." Naturally, the report was critical of the conduct of the White House and the Defense Department, since the whole thing had turned into a huge disaster so any useful review would need to be critical of the key people.

Apparently, what happened next was that the Army launched a big effort to suppress the report and keep its findings secret. Because, hey, why seek to inform the public when there are asses to cover?

Comments

I guess what strikes me more than anything else is the apparent lack of foresight of the Army. Did they expect a study of "Rebuilding Iraq" would reflect positively on the administration? On people who had no Phase IV?

Posted by space | February 11, 2008 10:59 AM

"maybe a coverup would help"

Minutemen reference? Maybe there's hope for your taste in music after all.

Posted by live | February 11, 2008 11:17 AM

The military is built on lies, promotes lies, and relies on lies, just like politicians.

Expecting any official truth from the military is a fool's game.

Once in a while, you might get some truth from an ex-military officer, but while in the service, adherence to the lies is part of the military "Code of Honor" (no joke intended).

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | February 11, 2008 9:29 PM

Most likely, the motivations of the Army command are complex and almost certainly involve cover-up/denial. However, you're ignoring the penultimate paragraph of the article where a Pentagon source claimed that the Army brass suppressed the report mostly out of fears that it would piss off Rumsfeld and involve the Army in the political conflicts surrounding the war. This sounds very plausible to me.

Posted by Keith M Ellis | February 12, 2008 2:19 AM

(Not that that doesn't involve ass-covering.)

Posted by Keith M Ellis | February 12, 2008 2:22 AM