Fmr UK army chief says Iraq war plan 'intellectually bankrupt'; top UK post-war planner says US "shut out anybody who challenged" preconceptions...

2 September :: Former head of the British Army, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Gen. Sir Mike Jackson, has created a political firestorm in Britain by saying US post-war planning was "intellectually bankrupt"; while current cabinet officials (Foreign and Defence secretaries) seek to cool the furore, saying the UK pullout of Basra will occur not before the end of the year, and only upon consultation with the US military commander in Iraq, the Guardian reports that "Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former Tory Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary, endorsed his criticism of Rumsfeld, calling him 'incompetent'" while "Major General Tim Cross, the top British officer involved in post-war planning. Describing US postwar policy as 'fatally flawed,' he said he had raised his concerns with Rumsfeld at the time but that his warnings had been 'dismissed' or 'ignored'"; Cross reportedly added "The US had convinced themselves that following the invasion Iraq would emerge reasonably quickly as a stable democracy. They shut out anybody who challenged that idea"...