6.5 | Planning and preparation for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, January to March 2003

1369. Ms Short told the House of Commons on 30 January 2003 that Iraq’s

infrastructure was:

“… in chronic disrepair. Hospitals, clinics, sanitation facilities and water treatment

plants suffer from a terrible lack of maintenance. The result is that the Iraqi people’s

lives are perilously fragile. Their coping strategies have worn away by years of

misrule. The public facilities to help them cope are run down, often to the point

of uselessness.”596

1370. Papers written in the weeks before the invasion and concerned with the

military objective of minimising further damage during conflict did not address

the risk to Coalition objectives represented by the underlying fragility of Iraq’s

infrastructure.

1371. Mr Drummond’s paper on “winning the peace”, sent to Sir David Manning on

14 February 2003, stated that Coalition Forces could expect to find an Iraq with certain

“broad characteristics”, including damage to key infrastructure, but “perhaps less than

other conflicts if the campaign is quick”.597

1372. The Military Campaign Objectives published on 20 March, stated that, in aiming

to achieve the objective as swiftly as possible, the military was required to make

“every effort … to minimise civilian casualties and damage to essential economic

infrastructure”.598

1373. The seven immediate military priorities in the aftermath of hostilities listed in the

Military Campaign Objectives included: “enable the reconstruction and recommissioning

of essential infrastructure for the political and economic development of Iraq, and the

immediate benefit of the Iraqi people”.599

1374. Section 6.2 addresses military planners’ efforts to minimise damage to Iraq’s

infrastructure during conflict.

1375. UK planners had little information on which to build an assessment of the

capabilities of Iraq’s civil bureaucracy.

1376. The FCO and the SPG recommended further work to address gaps in the

UK’s knowledge.

1377. There is no indication that those gaps were filled.

596 House of Commons, Official Report, 30 January 2003, columns 1053-1054.

597 Minute Drummond to Manning, 14 February 2003, ‘Iraq: Winning the Peace’ attaching

Paper OD Secretariat, 11 February 2003, ‘Iraq: Post Conflict: Key Messages’.

598 Iraq: Military Campaign Objectives, 18 March 2003.

599 Minute Bowen to Manning, 11 February 2003, ‘Iraq: Military Campaign Objectives’ attaching

Paper Cabinet Office, February 2003, ‘Iraq: Military Campaign Objectives’.

553