WASHINGTON, Sept 29: Iraq’s stubborn guerrilla war, electrical blackouts, looting and chaos were born in Washington — as US officials missed cues and battled over ideology, said a report published Sunday.

“What do we mean by ‘regime change,’ anyway?” military commander Tommy Franks asked Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — in the midst of the war, according to the issue of Newsweek that goes on sale Monday.

Franks and most of the Pentagon were focused on winning the war, which they did. But, the newsweekly said, the occupation was a second thought.

One example is the Coalition Provisional Authority.

“CPA stands for the Condescending and Patronizing Americans,” a Baghdad diplomat told Newsweek.

“So there they are, sitting in their palace: 800 people, 17 of whom speak Arabic. One is an expert on Iraq.”

What happened to the Iraq experts? According to Newsweek, Rumsfeld ordered 16 of the 20 Pentagon staffers picked to go to Baghdad be cut because they were “Arab apologists,” had positive opinions of the United Nations or other opinions not acceptable to the neo-conservatives running the US government.

Rumsfeld’s interference “got so bad that even doctors sent to restore medical services had to be anti-abortion,” a member of the original team said.—AFP