There was no post-war planning in Iraq, and the little planning that took place was ignored by the State Department, who didn't want to hear daunting words about liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein. The Pentagon skimped on troops, ignored the generals' advice, and sent light forces to Iraq. The Pentagon planned to create an Iraqi government and soon after train native Iraqi forces to carry on the fighting for their own country. However, some mistakes were made in Iraq, like miscommunications, unintended consequences, and intelligence failures.
             Comments: Bush should have done better post-war planning that would continue three to four years after the war. We should have had better intelligence which would lead to better results.
             The level of troops in Iraq left a point of criticism towards the Pentagon. Invading Iraq with merely 150,000 troops was not sufficient to do its job. The leaders decided that we should overrun the Iraqi regime quickly and violently as possible because overrunning the country quickly would result in lives saved. The Pentagon thought it was vital to avoid a long war that would weaken the country. For a quick win, we had to enforce a surprise attack and catch Hussein off guard. We had wanted to send our 4th Infantry Division through Turkey into Northern Iraq, but Turkey refused. Incredibly, we managed to surprise attack because Hussein thought we would never attack without the 4th Infantry Division.
             Comments: I think that leaving the 4th Infantry Division on the border goes both ways because if they did come down from Turkey into Northern Iraq, then we wouldn't have that many problems about insurgency, but he did surprise Saddam Hussein by initiating a surprise attack to quickly overthrowing his regime.
             Things went bad after the war and began in post-war. We had collapsed a regime too quickly, and eventually, the insurgents build back up. Generals wanted the war to be as humane as it can be. However, ...