Zakaria: An Absence of Legitimacy (Iraq Getting FUBAR)

[Bolo Boffin]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30724-2004Jan20.html

Excellent article.

U.S. policymakers made two grave mistakes after the war. The first was to occupy the country with too few troops, creating a security vacuum. This image of weakness was reinforced when Washington caved to Sistani's objections last June, junked its original transition plan and sped things up to coincide with the U.S. elections. The second mistake was to dismiss from the start the need for allies and international institutions. As it turns out, Washington now has the worst of both worlds. It has neither enough power nor enough legitimacy.

Remember the days when grownups ran the country?

[Old and In the Way]

1. But remember when the Republicans wanted to have an

investigation about the $8,000 in repairs to the WH after the Clintons left?

How about a friggen' investigation into where a Trillion dollars went? Of $200BB for a war on bogus charges of WMD? Or the loss of 500 Americans for Halliburton contracts? Or a real investigation into what the current administration pre-knew about 9/11 attacks....remember that day? When Bush sat and read goat stories for 20 minutes while we were under attack and then ran and hid?

Gee, they seem to have lost their taste for investigations, no?

Iraq is totally f'd up. These so-called "adults" with the so-called foreign policy "vision"....turns out they were a bunch of emotionally stunted kids with a shared cartoon perspective on reality. I wouldn't let these people plan a vacation for me, never mind entrust them with our foreign policy. Planning their war for 4 years and end up with this disaster? What a bunch of morons.

[aquart]

2. Agreed. Excellent article.

[wonderwhy]

3. well, really?

Interesting article if you ignore who's writing it.
Zakaria, like Pollack, was a bigtime pro-war voice
who know blames the mess on tactical errors.
At least Pollack admits he goofed.
YOu can be sure that if Iraq was a success,
Zakaria would be the first one to claim credit.
Now, it's the fault of US policymakers,
and not, of course not, that of pro-war policy analysts
like himself.