Posted on Fri, May. 25, 2007
By Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies warned the Bush administration before the invasion of Iraq that ousting Saddam Hussein would create a "significant risk" of sectarian strife, encourage al-Qaida attacks and open the way for Iranian interference.
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday released declassified prewar intelligence reports and summaries of others that cautioned that establishing democracy in Iraq would be "long, difficult and probably turbulent" and said that while most Iraqis would welcome elections, the country's ethnic and religious leaders would be unwilling to share power.
Nevertheless, President Bush, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top aides decided not to deploy the major occupation that force military planners had recommended, planned to reduce U.S. troops rapidly after the invasion and believed that ousting Saddam would ignite a democratic revolution across the Middle East.
The administration also instituted a massive purge of members of Saddam's Baath Party and disbanded the Iraqi army - moves that helped spark the country's Sunni Muslim insurgency - even though the newly declassified intelligence reports had recommended against doing so.
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Democrats said the documents showed that the administration had failed despite adequate warnings to prepare for the Sunni insurgency, al-Qaida terrorism and other problems that the United States has encountered since the March 2003 invasion.
moreArticle from 2004:
Prewar intelligence predicted Iraqi insurgencyIt has been established that Bush,
Rummy and the rest knew, lied and are still lying. It's not a matter of why they didn't prepare, it's a matter of why the hell they launched the war.
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