"Little thought to the aftermath"

Is Walter Pincus the only reporter in this country who gives a shit anymore?

Today he writes in the Washington Post that another British government memo has turned up, this one written in preparation of the meetings that led to the "Downing Street memo," the subject of so little notice on this side of the Atlantic.

The earlier memo confirms the Downing Street memo's conclusion that plans for the invasion of Iraq were "proceeding apace," but it has an additional nugget: not only was there little planning for the post-invasion, there were no plans to plan.

In its introduction, the memo "Iraq: Conditions for Military Action" notes that U.S. "military planning for action against Iraq is proceeding apace," but adds that "little thought" has been given to, among other things, "the aftermath and how to shape it."

[...]

In a section titled "Benefits/Risks," the July 21 memo states, "Even with a legal base and a viable military plan, we would still need to ensure that the benefits of action outweigh the risks."

Saying that "we need to be sure that the outcome of the military action would match our objective," the memo's authors point out, "A post-war occupation of Iraq could lead to a protracted and costly nation-building exercise." The authors add, "As already made clear, the U.S. military plans are virtually silent on this point. Washington could look to us to share a disproportionate share of the burden."

That memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith, who writes for the London Sunday Times. Excerpts were made available to The Washington Post, and the material was confirmed as authentic by British sources who sought anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the matter.

In reality, this only confirms what we knew already -- the only thing the war planners were concerned with was what to do with all those rose petals with which they expected to be showered.

For a change it doesn't appear that the Post has buried this story, as it does with so much of Pincus's work on Bush's War. I expect, though, few other papers will follow the Post's lead.