Say Anything Blog

Here.

WASHINGTON — The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the [propaganda stratagems] for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret.

That is what happened to a detailed study of the planning for postwar Iraq prepared for the Army by the RAND Corporation, a federally financed center that conducts research for the military.

After 18 months of research, RAND submitted a report in the summer of 2005 called “Rebuilding Iraq.” RAND researchers provided an unclassified version of the report along with a secret one, hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts.

But the study’s wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key.

A review of the lengthy report… shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war.

Right. We live in a democracy. Those function when information is disseminated and used. Those break down when shoddy leaders seek to control the documentation and dissemination of information pertaining to their dishonesty and ineptitude.

Don’t like those private reports, Army? Prepare your own FUCKING reports and stop gouging me on my taxes to pay some sally-ass RAND person umpteen million dollars to fill out a boilerplate memo telling us all that we are asses.

Don’t like democracy, an institution that thrives on information sharing? Move to Pakistan where the lawyers are in prison and people blow themselves up.

People who can’t admit to flaws, cover them up, and continue on as before, without acknowledging the problems that, if addressed, might save countless lives, are clearly dangerous individuals. Want to support the troops? Think about the amount of lives that something like GOOD PLANNING can save. Think about how much good planning one could buy with all those trillions of dollars the pentagram gets every year to play with.