Monday Morning Quarterback

It looks like the Pentagon is preparing for a Baghdad coup as much as they are an Anglo-American invasion.

The New York Times reports nothing much new and very little unexpected in a Sunday story on American war plans:

President Bush has settled on a war plan for Iraq that would begin with an air campaign shorter than the one for the Persian Gulf war, senior administration officials say. It would feature swift ground actions to seize footholds in the country and strikes to cut off the leadership in Baghdad.

The plan, approved in recent weeks by Mr. Bush well before the Security Council’s unanimous vote on Friday to disarm Iraq, calls for massing 200,000 to 250,000 troops for attack by air, land and sea. The offensive would probably begin with a “rolling start” of substantially fewer forces, Pentagon and military officials say.

The only real item of interest here is that General Tommy Franks will have the ability to begin the invasion