Backwards Planning

There's a concept I learned in the Army, used when writing Operations Orders. "Backwards Planning" involves starting with the end point of the mission and planning backwards from there. The primary purpose is to ensure that you apportion what time you have as required, so that you leave the staging position in time to be where you are supposed to be at the specified time. But it can also be used to ensure that you do the things you need to do to arrive at the end point with everything you need, having done everything necessary for the end state to happen.

I thought about backwards planning this morning when I heard the news of the latest car bombing in Baghdad that killed nearly three dozen Iraqis; most of them waiting to sign up for the new Iraqi Army.

Every new story says that the SUV that exploded was filled with explosives and artillery shells. Likely most of these came from ammunition dumps that remained unsecured after the US invasion and the routing of the old Iraqi Army. There weren't enough troops on the ground to secure all the ammo dumps, there weren't even enough to secure the more dangerous chemical and radioactive stocks.

So it all disappeared. Only to show up later. To kill our soldiers, to kill innocent Iraqis.

Because the planning for the occupation was shoddy, at best.