Smackdown of DOD nonsense by Dept of State; or, how General Odierno [unknowingly?] is talking out of his ass.

The Skeptical Bureaucrat spells out, point by point, how the Pentagon blew off State Dept advice on Iraq pretty much every step of the way. That's pretty much the very definition of hubris, I'd think.

The Skeptical Bureaucrat: Odierno: "We Came In Naive":

"The New York Times has a brief item today in which General Raymond Odierno, the departing commander of American forces in Iraq, reflects on the U.S. military's fundamental lack of understanding of Iraq and it's societal problems back when the invasion occurred in 2003...

...I guess General Odierno didn't get the memo about the Future of Iraq project. Too bad. That huge report would have filled him in on those issues he says he didn't understand. The Defense Department is a big place, after all, and he's only one man. It isn't like the Pentagon deliberately rejected those 13 volumes of exhaustive planning advise.

Oh, wait. I forgot. It did. In fact, the New York Times reported exactly that back on October 19, 2003..."