WASHINGTON, Aug 18: Senior US officials warned just a month before the invasion of Iraq of ‘serious planning gaps’ in how to manage the conquered country, according to declassified documents released on Wednesday.

One of the documents, obtained by the National Security Archive at the George Washington University in the US capital, revealed increasing confidence at the end of 2003 in the US military’s capacity to control guerillas. Since that date, more than 1,300 US troops have died in Iraq.

Critics of the US strike against Iraq often claim the Bush administration bungled the post-invasion period, contending that better planning and more troops could have snuffed out the fledgling resistance.

A month before the March 2003 start of US operations, three chiefs of bureau at the State Department warned then undersecretary of state for global affairs Paula Dobriansky of deficiencies in post-war plans.

“Serious planning gaps for post-conflict public security and humanitarian assistance” remained, the three heads of the Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, and Population, Refugees and Migration bureaux wrote in a memorandum.

“A failure to address short-term public security and humanitarian assistance concerns could result in serious human rights abuses which would undermine an otherwise successful military campaign, and our reputation internationally.”

Nine months after the invasion, in December 2003, the State Department sent a report to Congress which painted an optimistic picture of security in the country.

US forces “continue to make progress in stabilizing Iraq’s overall security situation” and have been “increasingly successful in preventing planned hostile attacks”, the report said.

But in an ominous warning, the report noted that guerillas were becoming more sophisticated in their strikes.

The State Department made a little noticed, and critics say, underfunded, attempt to plan for post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, with experts and Iraqi exiles, known as the Future of Iraq Project.—AFP