The war games looked at "worst case" and "most likely" scenarios after a war that removed then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power. Some are similar to what actually occurred after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003:

•"A change in regimes does not guarantee stability," the 1999 seminar briefings said. "A number of factors including aggressive neighbors, fragmentation along religious and/or ethnic lines, and chaos created by rival forces bidding for power could adversely affect regional stability."

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

Well George, you were about as right about Katrina then as you were right about Iraq in general. Why don't you do us all a favor, go back to Crawford, take your party of schmucks with you and let the adults try to clean up your mess.

1999 war games foresaw problems in Iraq - USATODAY.com

Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.

And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Mr. Bowen’s supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.

This isn't a war about "security" or "democracy" or anything else the White House has spewed forth as a rationale for it. It has become instead about how to bilk us out of everything we have and hand it over to someone else what wants more. My grandmother, having lived through the Depression, used to turn purple at the sound of the name Hoover. When everything about this administration finally comes out, George Bush is going to wish he were that well liked.

Congress Tells Auditor in Iraq to Close Office - New York Times

Another Marine stationed in Iraq has sent us a screenshot of what happens when you need some hot news on Macaca and Foley:

forbidden, this page (http://www.wonkette.com) is categorized as (Personal Pages) ALL SITES YOU VISIT ARE LOGGED AND FILED.

Nice little threat at the end, too. Asswipes.

Notice the other browser tabs. Two actual “personal pages” that rah-rah for Bush (What’s her name, the wannabe Coulter, and Hugh Hewitt) show up just fine, as our Marine Operative confirms. But “Talking Points Memo,” which is apparently one of the “left leaning” sites one hears so much about these days, is prohibited.

That's perfect. Withhold information that has nothing to do with the situation on the ground but that isn't favorable to the administration. I realize there could suddenly be a morale issue, but when you're getting attacked every 15 minutes, I'd tend to think that pooch is already screwed.

STOP ABUSING OUR MARINES! - Wonkette

Federal authorities had found the page and placed Wilson on their checklist. They finally reached her this week in her molecular biology class.

The 14-year-old freshman was taken out of class Wednesday and questioned for about 15 minutes by two Secret Service agents.

The War on Terror is over. Terror has won.

Teen questioned for online Bush threats - Yahoo! News

The account by Sean McCormack came hours after Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters aboard her airplane that she did not recall the specific meeting on July 10, 2001, noting that she had met repeatedly with Mr. Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. Ms. Rice, the national security adviser at the time, said it was “incomprehensible” she ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Maybe it wasn't memorable to Ms. Rice because she blew him off just like Woodward says. Amazing...

Records Show Tenet Briefed Rice on Al Qaeda Threat - New York Times

The legislation before the Senate today would ban torture, but let Bush define it; would allow the president to imprison indefinitely anyone he decides falls under a wide-ranging new definition of unlawful combatant; would suspend the Great Writ of habeas corpus; would immunize retroactively those who may have engaged in torture. And that's just for starters.

Walt Kelly once wrote, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." For fifty years, this country fought against what we saw as the worst countries and idealogies in the history of man, Hitler and Nazi Germany, Stalin and the Soviet Union, Mao and red China, and where force of arms was not an option did things that were pretty damn questionable in the name of the greater good, like the Somozas and the Shah for starters. But it was ostensibly in the name of the greater good.

That is not this. This is moving directly towards establishing the United States as one of those countries that we spent half a century fighting against. Now written and soon to be signed is legislation that says, "if you fall into any of these categories" you no longer exist. We can beat you, torture you, do anything we want, and you cannot challenge it in any way. You no longer have any legal standing, citizen or not, innocent or not, none of that matters.

If you should die in custody, well that's just too bad. There's no standing so they can just say anything they want and that's the end of it. George Orwell missed his date by 22 years.

Dan Froomkin - Bush Rules - washingtonpost.com

If the Bush administration won't admit error even when it abducts a completely innocent person and sends him to Syria to be tortured for almost a year, when will it?

The question isn't "How will history treat W?" it is "How will the prison guards treat him?"

War Room - Salon.com

In traditional U.S. Army slang dating back to the Second World War, a blivet was defined as "ten pounds of manure in a five pound bag," (a proverbial description of anything egregiously ugly or unmanageable); it was applied to an unmanageable situation, a crucial but substandard or damaged tool, or a self-important person.

Today's word for the day! As used in the which is a bigger blivet? Bush trying to redefine the Geneva Conventions to allow what we've been doing to people we've been doing to people at places like Gitmo, Bagram and the secret prisons, or Bush for trying to do so?

Blivet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"I will resist any bill that does not enable this program to go forward with legal clarity," Bush told reporters back at the White House after his meeting with lawmakers."

I think there already is legal clarity on this. It's illegal.

Bush lobbies Congress on terror suspects - Yahoo! News

And anyone who claims that I and others like me are "soft", or have "forgotten" the lessons of what happened here — is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante — and at worst, an idiot — whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a President.
However. Of all the things those of us who were here five years ago could have forecast — of all the nightmares that unfolded before our eyes, and the others that unfolded only in our minds… none of us could have predicted… this.
Five years later this space… is still empty.
Five years later there is no Memorial to the dead.
Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.
Five years later this country’s wound is still open.
Five years… later this country’s mass grave is still unmarked.
Five years later… this is still… just a background for a photo-op.
It is beyond shameful.

Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on Bush: Who has left this hole in the ground? We have not forgotten, Mr. President. You have. May this country forgive you