http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=400012Lessons from Iraq
<snip>When the United States occupied Germany at the end of World War II, key officers were given a 400-page manual, laying out such key details as who might be responsible for keeping the electrical grid going, how to work with the local mayor.
Saddam could restore utilities after our bombing attacks. We couldn't. Common Iraqis came to believe we couldn't be that inept. We must be punishing them by keeping the electricity off. The CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) came to stand for Can't Provide Anything.
In Iraq, planning was so poor that the key forces in Baghdad had to rely on a Lonely Planet Guidebook to find the Central Bank and National Museum.
There was the Army lieutenant who observed sewage flowing down an open gutter and dammed it up, only to find out he had short-circuited the town's sanitary system.
In an increasingly complex world, we will have to learn not only how to defeat an enemy, but how to feed nations, build bridges and run power grids. snip
Creating part of the force they would fight, American officials disbanded Saddam's army. This essentially left thousands of unemployed officers with weapons in their hands.
To oppose them, the Vinell Corporation (not the U.S. Army) was paid $48 million to train 22 battalions. Six took the field in 2003. Most of those fell apart.