US: Mr Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy US Defence Secretary, admitted yesterday that the US had underestimated the difficulty in securing post-war Iraq. He is the most senior Bush administration official to acknowledge that the Pentagon did not adequately prepare for stabilising Iraq.
Mr Wolfowitz, who has returned to the US after a five-day visit to Iraq, said that many of the worst-case scenarios for which the Defence Department planned - including a humanitarian, refugee or health crisis - had not occurred. However, the military had not anticipated the level of resistance from guerrilla forces.
They had expected that at least sections of the Iraqi military would remain intact after the war, allowing them to assist in security operations. Most importantly, however, the Pentagon had not anticipated that remnants of the regime would continue fighting after Saddam Hussein was deposed. "It was difficult to imagine before the war that the criminal gang of sadists and gangsters who have run Iraq for 35 years would continue fighting what has been sometimes called a guerrilla war," he said. - (Financial Times)