6.2 |
Military planning for the invasion, January to March
2003
nations
would be able to support the task within three months. Therefore,
there may
be an
unsupportable expectation that the UK would control a relatively
large area.
Pragmatically,
however, aftermath operations would commence locally
whenever
and
wherever hostilities ceased, not necessarily coincident with any
plan.
“The FCO
view was that other nations should be involved as soon as possible
and
that early
commitment to any nascent US sector plan should be avoided
…
“The UK
line to take at the Rock Drill would be the commitment in principle
to the
immediate
involvement in aftermath ops but not yet to any long-term plan,
noting the
PM’s wish
to exert maximum influence in aftermath planning. Clarity was
needed on
the
proposed command chain in Phase IV and whose political and legal
authority
408.
The Chiefs of
Staff agreed that humanitarian operations formed an essential
part
of the
overall campaign, not least as a force protection measure, and
should therefore
attract
Treasury contingency funding. Adm Boyce directed that humanitarian
assistance
be covered
in the joint FCO/MOD position paper on post-conflict issues for the
Rock
Drill,
which should make clear the potential for conflict and
post-conflict phases to run
in parallel
from an early stage.
409.
Adm Boyce
summarised the key points of the discussion on
post-conflict
preparations,
including:
•
The Rock
Drill should be used “to secure maximum [UK] influence without
early
commitment
to detail”.
•
A
“UN-approved international civilian administrator” would be
required.
•
UK Phase IV
activity should centre on the region around Basra.
•
The UK
military commitment should be “scaled down from large to
medium
410.
Lord Boyce
told the Inquiry:
“… the
initial expectation was that we would be there for a while, without
defining
exactly
what it was. But we certainly weren’t expecting, the day after
achieving
success, to
start drawing down our numbers; we were expecting to be there
for
a
considerable period of time.”147
145
Minutes, 19
February 2003, Chiefs of Staff meeting.
146
This is the
only reference to reducing troop numbers “in the autumn” seen by
the Inquiry. All subsequent
references
are to a reduction “by the autumn”.
147
Public
hearing, 3 December 2009, page 101.
447