Slip Slidin' Away

Jacob Sullum | February 15, 2007

Visit an alternate universe where "a broad-based, credible provisional government" was in place before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi army played a key role in "recovery" and "stabilization," and only 5,000 U.S. troops were left in Iraq four years after the invasion. As optimistic as this recently declassified military slide show is, it probably would have helped turn public opinion against the war had it been available at the time by focusing attention on the nation-building part of the war—i.e., the hard part—and all the things that would have to go just right for the U.S. to get out within five years.