strategy: asking the right questions

March 24, 2006 by  

This is a must read ($) for anyone leading strategy.

NYTimes ($)

25 Key Questions on Iraq

What the Bush administration and the American public should have been asking then, and what they should be asking now.

By DAVID C. UNGER
Published: March 15, 2006

If America had taken the trouble to learn more about Iraq before invading it in 2003, a lot of the problems we face there today could have been avoided. In fact, had the right questions been asked and answered accurately, the invasion might have been canceled before it began. For example, if the Bush administration had spent more time poring over the actual findings of American intelligence agencies, they might have realized then what almost everyone acknowledges today — that Iraq’s most dangerous weapons programs had been effectively shut down by sanctions and inspections, and that Baghdad was not helping Al Qaeda and had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks.

But leave aside that biggest “what if” and consider how much better the invasion and occupation could have gone if Washington had taken the trouble to find out some crucial things about the country it was preparing to remold.

Here are 25 of the most important questions about the Iraq invasion — 10 that policy makers should have asked before invading, 10 that they should have asked as it unfolded, and 5 that they should be asking themselves now.

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