Top Secret Polo Step - Iraq War Plan Assumed Only 5,000 U.S. Troops Still There by December 2006

February 15, 2007 8:50 AM

"It's quite frustrating the way this works, but the way we do things nowadays is combatant commanders brief their products in PowerPoint up in Washington to OSD and Secretary of Defense... In lieu of an order, or a frag [fragmentary] order, or plan, you get a set of PowerPoint slides... [T]hat is frustrating, because nobody wants to plan against PowerPoint slides." Lt. Gen. McKiernan

Top Secret Polo Step: CentCom PowerPoint Slides Briefed to White House and Rumsfeld in 2002, Obtained by National Security Archive through Freedom of Information Act.
"Desert Crossing" 1999 Assumed 400,000 Troops and Still a Mess
See also A Prewar Slide Show Cast Iraq in Rosy Hues
posted by y2karl (13 comments total)

Can't they afford Tuffte?
posted by YoBananaBoy at 8:56 AM on February 15, 2007

Reason #4,872 why PowerPoint should be removed from all human consciousness.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:05 AM on February 15, 2007

Can't they afford Tuffte?

Nope.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:06 AM on February 15, 2007

...oh wait, here's a free excerpt!
posted by Deathalicious at 9:09 AM on February 15, 2007

Ugh, PowerPoint will destroy Western Civilization. It has been there for all the tragedies of the modern era. If the Bible was written now, it would be in Powerpoint.
posted by rzklkng at 10:18 AM on February 15, 2007

If only somebody would have included some Flash Animation in those slides we'd not be in the mess we're in now!
posted by tkchrist at 10:26 AM on February 15, 2007

Executive Summary - Strategy For Iraq:

       1. Invade Iraq

       2. ???

       3. PROFIT!

Thank you for attending!
posted by briank at 11:22 AM on February 15, 2007

These slides also show a big fat check mark next to Turkey allowing overflights. Didn't Turkey actually deny the US Military flyover rights?
posted by nathancaswell at 11:29 AM on February 15, 2007

Come on, the US government's been using powerpoint almost 150 years and nothing's gone wrong yet.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:31 PM on February 15, 2007

US State Dept Welcomes Overflight Authorization, Says US is Opposed to Turkish "Unilateral Action" in Northern Iraq, Turkish Press Review, March 21, 2003
posted by kirkaracha at 2:28 PM on February 15, 2007

related: Bush jumped ahead of his script yesterday: the following exchange in Bush's press conference this morning:

Q: What assurances can you give the American people that the intelligence this time will be accurate?

BUSH: Ed, we know they're there, we know they're provided by the Quds force. We know the Quds force is a part of the Iranian government. I don't think we know who picked up the phone and said to the Quds force, go do this, but we know it's a vital part of the Iranian government. What matters is, is that we're responding. The idea that somehow we're manufacturing the idea that Iranians are providing IEDs is preposterous.

Quiddity asks:

Interesting. When questioned about the accuracy of the intelligence, Bush did not reply by saying that the collection of evidence was by reliable parties, or that the analysis was thorough. Instead, he spoke about manufacturing evidence, denying that it took place.
posted by amberglow at 5:01 PM on February 15, 2007

Slide 4:

Key Planning Assumptions - Generated Start

This Operation will be the national main effort

Opposition groups will work with us...

DOS will promote the creation of a broad-based, credible provisional government -- prior to D-day...

When we got there, we were given his remains. And remains they were. From the waist down was all they could give us. “We identified him by the cell phone in his pants’ pocket. If you want the rest, you will just have to look for yourselves. We don’t know what he looks like.”

Now begins a horror that surpasses anything I could have possibly envisioned .We were led away, and before long a foul stench clogged my nose and I retched. With no more warning we came to a clearing that was probably an inside garden at one time; all round it were patios and rooms with large-pane windows to catch the evening breeze Baghdad is renowned for. But now it had become a slaughterhouse, only instead of cattle, all around were human bodies. On this side; complete bodies; on that side halves; and EVERYWHERE body parts.

We were asked what we were looking for, “ upper half” replied my companion, for I was rendered speechless. “Over there”. We looked for our boy’s broken body between tens of other boys’ remains’; with our bare hands sifting them and turning them.

We found him millennia later, took both parts home, and began the mourning ceremony.

At The Morgue
posted by y2karl at 7:01 PM on February 15, 2007

Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility
posted by homunculus at 11:34 PM on February 17, 2007