■"What Were They Thinking?" op-ed by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, 7 October 2005, p. A31.

Good piece that points out that the real intell failure on Iraq was not WMD, but how much the Civil Affairs crowd was hoodwinked into believing that Iraq's infrastructure was reasonably salvageable.

I write about this in Blueprint for Action, describing my time at a worldwide convention of civil affairs officers last summer. To a man, each said they were blown away by how blown away Iraq's infrastructure already was by the time they got there, with the looting being the final blow.

Friedman's larger point is also key: we're doing nation-creating in Iraq, not rebuilding. In the Highlands Forum meet I attended last May (the second one on the SysAdmin concept, not the Dec 04 one on the "Pentagon's New Map"), this was the huge theme put forth by the Defense Science Board and their magnificent "Transition To and From Hostilities" report.

It is crucial for us to remember this: we will create nations in the Gap, not rebuild them. The military-market nexus will be redefined in our understanding through this effort. There is no alternative.