How is it that the one guy who can be held directly responsible for much of what’s gone wrong in Iraq still has his job?  "Heckuvajob Rummy" is still the Secretary of Defense, still getting his panties in a twist whenever someone questions him and still putting our military in a lose-lose position.  The worst part is that there was information out there, war game results from 1999 (Desert Crossing), that should have warned him that he needed to think twice about the invasion and to plan very carefully for the after-action occupation.  These war games were conducted by US Central Command (CENTCOM) under Marine General Anthony Zinni who even called CENTCOM in 2002, when it was apparent we were going to war, to remind them of the existence of the Desert Crossing report. 

Among other things the report found that there would need to be a minimum of 400,000 troops in Iraq and even then things would be messy.  Army General Tommy Franks, who took over CENTCOM after Zinni’s retirement, proposed 385,000 troops for Iraq in his original operational plan for the war but Rumsfeld insisted on a sharply reduced number and approved only 160,000.

Even with the 400,000 troops that the war game report recommended the authors anticipated many of the problems we have in Iraq today.

The results of Desert Crossing, however, drew pessimistic conclusions            regarding the immediate possible outcomes of such action. Some of these conclusions are interestingly similar to the events
which actually occurred after Saddam was overthrown. (Note
1) The report forewarned that regime change may cause regional
   instability by opening the doors to "rival forces bidding for power" which, in turn, could cause societal "fragmentation along religious and/or ethnic lines" and antagonize "aggressive neighbors." Further, the report illuminated worries that secure borders and a restoration of civil order may not be enough to stabilize Iraq if the replacement government were perceived as weak, subservient to outside powers, or out of touch with other regional governments. An exit strategy, the report said, would also be complicated by differing visions for a post-Saddam Iraq among those involved in the conflict.

The war game findings were declassified in 2004 and became public as a result of a FOIA request by George Washington University’s National Security Archive and their posting of the document on their website on November 4, 2006. 

The full report can be found here.

It’s one thing to screw the pooch, but when you do it even after the pooch has growled a warning you deserve a special medal of incompetence.  What’s the opposite of a Silver Star?  Whatever it is we should give it to "Heckuvajob Rummy".

**Update 11/8/06** Rummy’s resigning. President Bush thought he was great until the House was lost to the Dems and the specter of Congressional investigations loomed.  I doubt Bush even had to push very hard to get Rummy to the end of the plank.