Digby:

Newt was for the original Rumsfeld plan which was to put about 40,000 troops on the ground and install Ahmad Chalabi as the puppet president of Iraq.

...this guy takes himself very seriously as a military historian and strategist. He also likes dinosaurs. In other words, he's a twelve year old geek who wants to play with real soldiers. Like many wingnut "intellectuals" he seems to have some serious developmental problems. Admittedly, I am no military strategist. But I read up on Rummy and Newtie's RMA back in 2002, and while it is not entirely bullshit, this particular aspect of it certainly is, especially in the hands of people who simply refuse to accept reality. In Newtie's little fantasy Iraq, perhaps using even fewer troops than we did could have worked. Here on planet earth, the results of sending in too few as it was are manifest and horrifying...read on"