As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary:” “715. In January 2005, Lt Gen Fry produced a thoughtful and realistic assessment of the prospects for security in Iraq, observing that “’we are not on track to deliver the Steady State Criteria (SSC) before the UN mandate expires, or even shortly thereafter’. He judged that ‘only additional military effort by the MNF-I [Multi-National Force – Iraq] as a whole’ might be able to get the campaign back on track. Lt Gen Fry identified three possible courses of action for the UK: increasing the UK scale of effort, maintaining the status quo or, if it were judged that the campaign was irretrievable, accepting failure and seeking to mitigate UK liability.”
– Commissioned by the Prime Minister The Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP, “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry: Executive Summary,” IraqInquiry.org.uk, Jan. 11, 2005