Being there . . . . with the planning team for our invasion into Iraq in March of 2003 to remove,
in many ways, the Second Coming of Hitler in the grotesque form of Saddam Hussein.
Remember that? A new book from Casemate Publishers has just arrived entitled, “Expectation
of Valor: Planning for the Iraq War”, by Colonel Kevin C.M. Benson (Ret), based upon a daily
journal he maintained during the preparations for the attack. For the first time, serious military
buffs and general armchair readers are offered unique Army personalities, insights and
perspectives of the challenges, definitions, and logistics of that entire Iraq war, including finding
the murderous dictator in a hole of someone’s backyard. But a lasting perception still exists
over these past two decades that the U.S. Army, before the Iraq attack and incursion, was
shallow, even empty of consideration of what in the heck we should do with that oil-rich nation
once the coalition forces encircled Baghdad, entered, and started searching for the despot.
However, if truth is to prevail, a great deal of planning and organization was in place and
circulation to address how best to achieve the policy objectives for Iraq established by Bush
Administration among the president’s staff and top military figures. Thanks to Kevin, Director of
Plans for the U.S. Third Army’s ground forces command headquarters for General Franks’
Central Command, we are now privy to the full details of the invasion plan’s development and
its subsequent execution from D-Day in March 2003 until the change of command operations
and the Third Army’s final departure in June, five weeks later. . . .
CASEMATE PUBLISHERS ADDRESSES THE PERSISTENT ARGUMENT, I.E., “TROPE”, THAT OUR
ARMY DID NO PLANNING FOR “PHASE IV” OF THE INVASION OF IRAQ. SOME MILITARY
ANALYSTS ARGUE THAT MOST CERTAINLY MANY MISTAKES WERE MADE BY THE UNITED
STATES IN OCCUPYING IRAQ BUT NONE AS DAMNING AS THE MISHANDLING OF THAT
COUNTRY’S POSTWAR SAFETY, SECURITY AND RECONSTRUCTION. . . .
Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi
“EXPECTATION of VALOR – – Planning for the Iraq War”, by Colonel Kevin C.M. Benson (Ret.),
and Introduced by General Vincent Brooks (Ret.). CASEMATE PUBLISHERS, Havertown, PA.
19083: pub date, July 15, 2024, 272 pages, hardcover, 6 x 9 inches, $34.95. Visit,
www.casematepublishers.com.
Of special significance, “Expectation of Valor” covers the difficulties that emerged while
dealing with Gerald Ford’s (1975-1977) and George W. Bush’s Secretary of Defense (2001-2006)
Donald Rumsfeld, from getting his approval on the number of ground forces requested to
conducting the campaign to find the “smoking gun” of WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction;
the instructions given to Army, Marine, and coalition forces; and the daily secure video
teleconferences with Central Command and the Pentagon; and the confidential conversations
and guidance that came from these meetings.
Major General A.E. Whitley (Ret.) paid Kevin a cogent, much appreciated, endorsement, one
of the best among the hundreds that have started pouring in prior to the pub date of July 15,
- He writes, “This is a remarkable book. What Colonel Benson has written is far more than
just a war diary that illustrates the complexity, tensions, pressures, workloads and necessary
detail of planning within what was in ‘old speak’, an army group at war. I highly commend this
seminal book but not just for SAMS, School of Advanced Military Studies, or Higher Command
and Staff students, but one that potential statemen and senior administrators would be well
advised to study.”
