We Don't Need A Post-War Plan

This report from The Daily Press has an interview with Army Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid. This underlines the incompetence of this administration. Eustis chief: Iraq post-war plan muzzled Army Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, an early planner of the war, tells about challenges of invasion and rebuilding. BY STEPHANIE HEINATZ 247-7821 September 8, 2006 FORT EUSTIS -- Months before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forbade military strategists from developing plans for securing a post-war Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said Thursday. In fact, said Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, Rumsfeld said "he would fire the next person" who talked about the need for a post-war plan. Rumsfeld did replace Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff in 2003, after Shinseki told Congress that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to secure post-war Iraq. Scheid, who is also the commander of Fort Eustis in Newport News, made his comments in an interview with the Daily Press. He retires in about three weeks. Scheid doesn't go so far as calling for Rumsfeld to resign. He's listened as other retired generals have done so. "Everybody has a right to their opinion," he said. "But what good did it do?" Scheid's comments are further confirmation of the version of events reported in "Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq," the book by New York Times reporter Michael R. Gordon and retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor. In 2001, Scheid was a colonel with the Central Command, the unit that oversees U.S. military operations in the Mideast. On Sept. 10, 2001, he was selected to be the chief of logistics war plans. On Sept. 11, 2001, he said, "life just went to hell." That day, Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of Central Command, told his planners, including Scheid, to "get ready to go to war." A day or two later, Rumsfeld was "telling us we were going to war in Afghanistan and to start building the war plan. We were going to go fast. "Then, just as we were barely into Afghanistan ... Rumsfeld came and told us to get ready for Iraq." .................. "The secretary of defense continued to push on us ... that everything we write in our plan has to be the idea that we are going to go in, we're going to take out the regime, and then we're going to leave," Scheid said. "We won't stay." Scheid said the planners continued to try "to write what was called Phase 4," or the piece of the plan that included post-invasion operations like occupation. Even if the troops didn't stay, "at least we have to plan for it," Scheid said. "I remember the secretary of defense saying that he would fire the next person that said that," Scheid said. "We would not do planning for Phase 4 operations, which would require all those additional troops that people talk about today. Read More At: The Daily Press Afghanistan - Iraq Deaths: Iraq U.S. Deaths Confirmed By The DoD: 2662 Reported U.S. Deaths Pending DoD Confirmation: 5 Total 2667 DoD Confirmation List Latest Coalition Fatality: Sep 08, 2006 Afghanistan - Operation Enduring Freedom Total 335 Total for Afghanistan and Iraq - 3002 U.S. Deaths From http://icasualties.org/oif/