With the greatest of respect "Plan B" has, I believe, a chance of succeeding, but for one critical factor - information operations.

In this respect, I'm afraid we are building on sand because the foundations of such information operations must be truth. It also helps to have a vision of what you want to achieve.

Without wishing to open up a debate on these points, I do not believe we have yet received a truthful and convincing explanation of why we invaded Iraq in the first place, assuming that such things exist. Nor has anyone shared with us a clear vision of what we wish our armed services to achieve.

For example, the clear objectives in WWII were to defeat Japan and Germany and remove their respective governments. The objective then almost immediately became to craft bulwarks against USSR type Communism.

To put it another way, now immortalised in every business school corporate strategy class, is the "business plan" of the Elves in a "South Park", to wit:

1. Steal underpants.

2. ???????????

3. Profit!

What is the 2. ????????? imperative in Iraq? Why are we there?

Absent these foundations, the information operations task is going to be extremely arduous, if it can be performed at all.