New York, Oct 20: The occupation forces' inability in imposing stability in Iraq has been attributed to ignoring by Pentagon officials, a year-long US State Department study that had predicted many of the problems which have plagued the American-led forces. Beginning in April 2002, the US State Department project assembled more than 200 Iraqi lawyers, engineers, business people and other experts into 17 working groups to study topics ranging from creating a new justice system to reorganizing the military to revamping the economy.
"Their findings included a much more dire assessment of Iraq's dilapidated electrical and water systems than many Pentagon officials assumed," a report in the New York Times said yesterday.
The report, quoting internal State Department documents and administration and congressional officials, warned of a society so brutalized by Saddam Hussein's rule that many Iraqis might react coolly to Americans' notion of quickly rebuilding civil society.
However, several officials said that many of the findings in the USD five million study were ignored by Pentagon officials until recently even as the Pentagon said they took the findings into account. Bureau Report