Two centuries ago, Karl von Clausewitz noted in his timeless classic On War that “War is the continuation of politics by other means.” Today, Gulf War II in Iraq is certainly much more about politics than it is about warfare. The American and British militaries performed spectacularly well in the conquering stage last March; now if only the Bush Administration were handling the political aftermath of the war anywhere nearly as well.

Newsweek’s special report this week of War In Iraq : What Went Wrong does a pretty good job of covering these shortcomings. Normally I am somewhat down on Newsweek, which has deteriorated considerably (along with Time magazine, which ran its own pretty good “special report” on Iraq back in October) from the journalistic powerhouses both once were. However, the latest Newsweek report goes beyond David Kay’s admission-of-the-week about a lack of WMDs to touch on the shortcomings of the Bush Administration’s efforts in Iraq since Mission Accomplished. Required reading; judge for yourself:

Newsweek “War In Iraq : What Went Wrong” report articles:

Two not to be missed:

Racing the Clock in Iraq
Iraq’s Most Powerful Man

The rest:

Q&A: Nuclear Watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei

Zakaria: We Had Good Intel–The U.N.’S

Taking Tea–and Iraq’s Pulse–in Baghdad

Dickey: Bush’s Bad Judgment on Iraq Intel

Terror Watch: Is CIA Really to Blame for Iraq Intelligence?

Blood and Honor

Eleanor Clift: Bush’s Military Problem

A Tense Road Trip From Baghdad

Links to Newsweek’s Iraq coverage in:

March 2003
April 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003

Update [2004-2-3 8:48:5 by rickyjames]: The official U.S. Army after-action report “On Point” for the Iraq invasion states the Third Infantry Division was within two weeks of having to halt offensive operations due to logistics shortages, and that tactical intelligence failed to show that Baghdad was effectively undefended. Not to detract from a tremendous showing by the troops in the field, in poker terms the American and British forces got what is termed a “good flop.”