Bush's Iraq strategy is a Sidney Harris cartoon

Wonder how it all went so terribly wrong in Iraq? Ever ask yourself "what the hell were they thinking?" Well, John Holbo at Crooked Timber says that Fiasco, the new book on the Iraq misadventure by Thomas Ricks, provides the answer...in PowerPoint. Behold, the master plan for reconstructing Iraq:

When you hear people say "The map is not the territory," this is pretty much what they mean. There are so many failed assumptions here that it's hard to count them all. Wrong at just about every step. And the kicker is the nebulous central concept, the hilariously-titled "Aimed Pressure to Achieve End-State Over Time." It brings to mind the equally vague Step 2 from the famous Sidney Harris cartoon.

"Then a miracle appears," indeed.

(Via Kevin Drum. Cross-posted.)