[MMMMMM]

Er, Andy, my hasty mistake...I was only responding to the part about Bush not having much considered the potential Iraqi death toll--hence my comment that since it would be far lower than Golf War 1, that was enough to know, as war was a given.

As for US casualties, I think they took lots of precautions, and in fact we suffered very low numbers killed during the war proper ("low" meaning compared to most other wars, of course). The insurgency later claimed a multiple of those numbers, if I'm not mistaken.

I also suspect that there was pretty good confidence on the part of the administration, that the pre-war leaflets and bribes to Iraqi commanders and generals, coupled with the precision strikes, would combine to keep American casualties relatively low. And indeed that turned out to be the case. So even if they didn't plan exact casualty scenarios for American troops, I'll bet they had a pretty good idea that it would go fairly smoothly and well, as wars go--which turned out to be true even despite the fact that Turkey sabotaged our efforts at the last minute by denying land access from the North.

Maybe there was a gap in planning as you say--but if so, I think it might be of less significance than it may appear at first glance.

Regarding the wiretap stuff, I haven't yet really read or absorbed the news, so my comments on that will have to wait.