Who lost Iraq?

[ProSense]

December 05, 2006

Who lost Iraq?

Posted 9:00 am | Printer Friendly | Spotlight

Digg this • Add to del.icio.us • Email this

For far too many on the right, Iraq can’t be Bush’s fault because, well, it just can’t. To hold him responsible for the calamity would be to label his presidency a tragedy. This is not to say the “blame game” should be avoided, only that fingers should be pointed away from the commander in chief.

Last week, the right picked up on blaming Americans. From Roll Call’s Mort Kondracke:

All over the world, scoundrels are ascendant, rising on a tide of American weakness. It makes for a perilous future.

President Bush bet his presidency — and America’s world leadership — on the war in Iraq. Tragically, it looks as though he bit off more than the American people were willing to chew.

Au contraire, said other conservatives, who preferred to blame Iraqis.

Snip…

Wrong again, said still other conservatives. The real culprit is, of course, the media. Consider the Weekly Standard’s Michael Novak.

Snip…

As for Novak’s specific assessment, I think Josh Marshall has the appropriate response.

It’s a fascinating narrative they’re developing. President Bush can handle and generally kick the ass of the Taliban, al Qaida, Saddam, the Iranians mullahs and everybody else around the globe single-handedly without any help from anyone.

Just as long as someone can protect him from the base of the Democratic Party and MSM news editors.

Honestly, I can’t quite figure out what the right would have the media do differently. Reporters failed to ask the tough questions before the war, were cheerleaders after the war had begun, and slowly started reporting the nightmare, after the facts on the ground became undeniable. Indeed, at this point, by some estimations, Iraq is actually worse than the media is telling us.

And yet, we should blame the press for the fiasco? The mind reels.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. No one. It is still right where it always was

nyuk, nyuk, nyuk

[aquart]

2. The insanity is implying Iraq was ever ours.

We lost it by invading. There was no possibility of winning ANYTHING from that moment.

[Doctor_J]

3. Yes, and Smirk's failure in school, grad school, business, as a parent, and

as governor weren't his fault either. Remember when he was going to "usher in a new era of personal responsibility"?

Liar, coward, hypocrite.

[meegbear]

4. Who lost Iraq?

[Double T]

5. WHO lost Iraq??? The AMERICAN PEOPLE that voted for and supported......

bush.

[beachmom]

6. Yep -- my wingnut neighbor thinks CNN lost the Iraq War

And then she made fun of me for the info I was telling her about torture -- "oh, beachmom, so you just BELIEVE what you read", and yet, she thinks CNN, not Bush admin FUCK-UPs cost us the Iraq War (or Iraq peace, if you will).

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. Won the war, lost the peace,

and it was never ours to win anyway.

[fuzzyball]

8. Until I see helicopters rescuing people from the rooftops of

American embassy in iraq, there is still hope for a free Iraq.
Free of Taliban style rule that is.

The ONLY weapon the insurgents have are concealed roadside bombs.
They have not won a single firefight with either the Iraqi army
or US military. The insurgents simply have no military power to
defeat their adversary.

My forecast is that we will see a political solution during 2007,
which will include phased withdrawal of Americam troops.

[Greyhound]

9. He made a typically stupid decision to go "all in" on an off-suit 3 - 9

and, as he has always done throughout his life, created a complete disaster that he will not bear any consequences for.

[jpwhite]

10. we didn't lose

We did not "lose" the war against Iraq. We went in based on bad intel, but remember it was Saddam who refused to allow the weapons inspectors in. He is the one who has been playing games for the last 10 years. Now, I believe that we should have kept the sanctions in place and worked with his neighbors to get Saddam to let the inspectors in....however, I am glad that Saddam is in jail now.

The main thing is that Iraqis are also glad that Saddam is gone from power. They just want us out too. So we should do a phased withdrawl, and equip the Iraqi police and army to do the job and restore peace to their country. We didn't lose to anyone. The military went in and kicked Saddam's butt.

James
[e-mail]

[ProSense]

11. Are you kidding?

Iraq is destroyed and tens of thousands of Iraqis are dead:

“I got nothing from this so-called liberation, just this cell phone and my satellite receiver. But I lost my three daughters,” said Nawar Maarof, a 34-year-old taxi driver who said he had dreamed of becoming an accountant. “I have a feeling that my destiny is the same. Anyway, we're all dead.”

Salam Nassir, a 25-year-old college student, also longed for Saddam.

“We deserve all this because we didn't fight the Americans,” he said. “We had to know from the start they would not help us and were lying about liberating Iraq.”

link to article.


The lunacy of winning!