Thread by @marcgarlasco

Twenty years ago the invasion of #Iraq began with airstrikes on Dora Farms in an attempt to kill Saddam Hussein. I was the Chief of High Value Targeting (HVT) in the Pentagon. We conducted 50 airstrikes on #Saddam and the "deck of cards" and never killed a single one of them. 1/

HVT cells were at the Pentagon (DIA), CIA, NSA, and CENTCOM forward. The war was to begin two days later yet Bush changed the plan & struck a massive palace complex on Dora Farms in Baghdad. CIA had HUMINT reporting of Saddam being there so the war might be ended swiftly. 2/

As we tried to discern if Saddam had been killed the Joint Targeting List (JTL) was RAPIDLY altered. The targeting community had spent a week at Shaw AFB meticulously planning the opening strikes of what would later be known as "shock and awe." Now it had to be redone. 3/

If Saddam were dead many of the buildings slated to be bombed would be needed so we removed them from the JTL and re-racked and stacked them. What people called shock and awe was far from what had been planned. But was Saddam dead? 4/

Cheney went on TV and SHOCKED us as he read almost verbatim from CIA reports that "He was seen being dug out of the rubble and wasn't able to breathe." Audio and later video of Saddam came out. He was alive and so we kept trying to kill him. 5/

Thus Dora Farms was the first of 50 strikes in the whack-a-mole hunt for Saddam that only killed civilians. April 5 Basrah - 17 civilians killed in a strike on Chemical Ali, King of Spades. April 8 Baghdad - 6 civilians in a strike on Saddam's brother Watban the 5 of Spades 6/

April 7 Baghdad - the most famous strike on Saddam and his two sons the Aces of Spades, Clubs, and Hearts killed 18 civilians. We had put together the "Black List" (that became the deck of cards) at CIA. The last dozen or so names were pulled from a hat. 7/

The pressure to kill Saddam and those on the list was intense and group think combined with hubris kept the strikes going. At what point do you reevaluate? Ten failed strikes? 20? No you keep going because THIS is the one. The intel is better. But we went ZERO for FIFTY. 8/

What's in a number? The US famously said they don't do body counts. We probably won't ever know the true human cost of the Iraq invasion and wars that it led to. The "insurgency," rise of ISIS, dead soldiers, dead civilians. @ThisAmerLife once tried 9/ thisamericanlife.org/320/whats-in-a…

Today the US is finally creating its FIRST policy on civilian harm and I applaud the @SecDef for his efforts to implement the CHMRAP but WE ARE STILL WAITING and the policy is hung up in the Pentagon. It's been 20 YEARS @DOD_Policy - push the damn thing out already. 10/

My heart is filled with sorrow. Looking back over the past 20 years I can tell you one thing for certain - it wasn't "Iraqi Freedom" that was launched that day twenty years ago...

I left the Pentagon the day after Saddam's statue fell. I have worked these last 20 years as a war crimes investigator and human rights investigator. I now work with militaries to improve their CIVCAS work so civilians in conflict are spared the harms or war... END

As confusion reigned

Sorry - that last was an unintentional remnant