76^th in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. As Invasion Month—March 2003—draws to a close, the White House, the Pentagon and the intelligence community are increasingly bedeviled by questions about those missing Iraqi WMD. Administration spokesmen continue to insist gamely that they will turn up. And if they do not turn up—as with Osama bin Laden and, supposedly, Saddam Hussein—it does not matter much anyway.
March 30-31, 2003:

March 30, 2003 – Donald Rumsfeld is interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week:

“(Off Camera) Finally, weapons of mass destruction, key goal of the military campaign is finding those weapons of mass destruction. None have been found yet. There was a raid on the Ansar al-Islam camp. A lot of people expected to find ricin there. None was found. How big of a problem is that? And is it curious to you that given how much control US and coalition forces now have in the country, they haven't found any weapons of mass destruction?

DONALD RUMSFELD

Not at all. If you think, let me take that both pieces. The area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is, is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat. Second, the kernel facilities, there are dozens of them, it is a large geographic area. It is the Ansar al Islam group has killed a lot of Kurds. They're tough, and our forces are currently in there with the Kurdish forces cleaning the area out, tracking them down, killing them or capturing them, and they will then begin the site exploitation. The idea from your question that you can attack that place and exploit it and find out what's there in 15 minutes. I would also add that we saw from the air there were dozens of trucks that went into that facility after the existence of it became public in the press, and they moved things out. They dispersed them and took them away. So there may be nothing left. I don't know that. But it's way too soon to know. The exploitation is just starting.”

March 31, 2003 – The Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) enters Iraq to begin reconstruction programs, staffed partly by USAID personnel positioned on the ground in Kuwait prior to the assault on Iraq.

 
Early signs are that ORHA will be operating without much awareness on the part of the administration as to what is needed.

Same day -- Department of State Daily Press Briefing, spokesman Richard Boucher:

“MR. BOUCHER: No, I -- on the issue of sort of stabilization and peacekeeping in post-Saddam Iraq, obviously there is a job that needs to be done. That job of stabilization, that job of maintaining security for the Iraqi people, clearly American forces will be there to help with that, but there may be ways of involving others, as well. But that is at an early stage right now, I'd have to say.”

Considering the White House emphasis on “a country the size of California,” before the war and during the hunt for Iraqi WMD, there seems to have been little calculation about how much reconstruction would be needed, and how best to perform any reconstruction.

Same day – Department of Defense Press Briefing, Torie Clarke:

“MS. CLARKE: (In progress.) Good afternoon everybody. Significant progress continues in the coalition campaign in Iraq. Let me take just a couple of minutes to remind everyone of the eight mission objectives of Operation Iraqi Freedom, as Secretary Rumsfeld described just a week ago.

          First, end the regime of Saddam Hussein; second, capture or drive out terrorists sheltered in Iraq; third, collect intelligence on terrorist networks; fourth, collect intelligence on Iraq's illicit weapons-of-mass-destruction activity; five, destroy the weapons of mass destruction, the systems and the facilities; sixth, secure Iraq's oil fields and natural resources for the Iraqi people; seven, end the sanctions and immediately deliver humanitarian relief; and the final objective, to help the Iraqi people transition to a non-threatening, representative form of self-government that preserves the territorial integrity of Iraq.

          Our courageous men and women in uniform are moving forward with these goals. Each day we significantly reduce the ability of the enemy to command and control his forces. Within just a few short days, coalition troops have moved more than 200 miles through Iraq and are now close to Baghdad. Coalition forces in the region are growing more dominant on ground and in the air. And as part of the previously-planned force flow, more coalition personnel move in every day.”

 
The administration continues to insist that Iraq is being invaded by an international ‘coalition’—another Orwellianism—rather than by the U.S. alone. As the world is well aware, the overwhelming majority of troops in Iraq come from the U.S.