A top U.S. general who oversaw troops in Vietnam, the first Gulf War and Bosnia told The Observer newspaper that the Pentagon failed “to prepare for the consequences of victory” in Iraq.

General William Nash said the US had “failed to understand the mindset and attitudes of the Iraqi people and the depth of hostility towards the US in much of the country.”

As a result, Nash says, “we are now seeing the re-emergence of a reasonably organised military opposition–small scale, but it could escalate.”