Iraq is a shambles because Bush is an idiot and his lackeys are fools.

[BurtWorm]

This simple truth bears being looked at again and again, becuause it's so obvious, it's easy to overlook. This disaster (all Bushism, in fact) all boils down to the idiocy and incompetence of greedy, power-hungry fools.

Peter Galbraith is more eloquent on the subject:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18771

In his State of the Union address, President Bush told his Iraq critics, "Hindsight is not wisdom and second-guessing is not a strategy." His comments are understandable. Much of the Iraq fiasco can be directly attributed to Bush's shortcomings as a leader. Having decided to invade Iraq, he failed to make sure there was adequate planning for the postwar period. He never settled bitter policy disputes among his principal aides over how postwar Iraq would be governed; and he allowed competing elements of his administration to pursue diametrically opposed policies at nearly the same time. He used jobs in the Coalition Provisional Authority to reward political loyalists who lacked professional competence, regional expertise, language skills, and, in some cases, common sense. Most serious of all, he conducted his Iraq policy with an arrogance not matched by political will or military power.

These shortcomings have led directly to the current dilemmas of the US both in Iraq and with Iran. Unless the President and his team—abetted by some oversight from Congress— are capable of examining the causes of failure in Iraq, it is hard to believe he will be able to manage the far more serious problem with Iran.

[BurtWorm]

1. kick

[wiggs]

2. yep. Someone in press and in politics should say it just as you did.

Not so hard. A dem leader who says that now would get a lot of kudos and I think most people would be receptive. What have they got to lose?

[Bobbieo]

4. Iraq is a shambles because

Bush and company are arrogant, insensitive clods.

[JackRiddler]

3. Wrong

Iraq is a shambles because Democrats like Kerry and HR Clinton, though they knew better, nevertheless enabled the neocon plan, which so far is going according to plan.

The chaos and civil war is absolutely part of the neocon plan. "Incompetence" was always understood to be part of the plan.

The idea always was to destroy Iraq, to crush the hopes of the people, to end any chance of a strong and united, secular and democratic nation down the line.

Oh sure, there was a pretend "Plan A." That the people would greet the invading US soldiers, whose forces had just bombed them flat, with flowers and kisses.

But it was always understood that Plan B was the overwhelming likelihood. To divide and conquer. To make war on them in a fashion that leaves them to make war on each other.

The only concern of US policy is to secure the big military bases and, if possible, a decent future flow of oil overseen by private corporations (not a high immediate priority). The idea is to have Shiites and Sunnis and Kurds killing each other.

This is why British forces were caught with the very type of explosives used in "insurgent terrorist" attacks. This is why "Zarqawi" was constructed in the same way as Bin Ladin as the sole mastermind of all attacks. This is why the US supports death squads of the Interior Ministry.

The only hope of the Iraqi people would be an immediate parliamentary resolution inviting the US forces to leave now.

[BurtWorm]

8. It's one of those Nasrudin* fables. You can follow many threads to find

the persons to blame. I totally agree that Hillary, Schumer, Daschle, Kerry, et al., share in the blame for allowing the worst to happen. And I don't care how many excuses people make for any of them.







*WHAT IS Fate?” the Mulla Nasrudin was once asked by a scholar. “An endless succession of intertwined events, each influencing the other,” he replied. The scholar raised a sceptical eyebrow: “I can’t accept that. I believe in cause and effect.” “Very well,” said the Mulla and drew his attention to a procession of people, leading a man to be hanged. “Is that man going to die because someone gave him the money that let him buy the knife he used for murder, or because someone saw him do it, or because nobody stopped him?”

http://www.humangivens.com/editorial/issue44edit.html

[wiggs]

11. I agree with most if not all of your post

"The chaos and civil war is absolutely part of the neocon plan. "Incompetence" was always understood to be part of the plan.

The idea always was to destroy Iraq, to crush the hopes of the people, to end any chance of a strong and united, secular and democratic nation down the line.

Oh sure, there was a pretend "Plan A." That the people would greet the invading US soldiers, whose forces had just bombed them flat, with flowers and kisses.

But it was always understood that Plan B was the overwhelming likelihood. To divide and conquer. To make war on them in a fashion that leaves them to make war on each other."

I believe the above....and if you look at the totality of US actions in Iraq from March 2003 onward, you'll see that very little has been done to stabilize Iraq and much has been done to DE-stabilize: dismissing Iraq army with weapons; failing to secure weapons caches; failing to rebuild; failing to employ Iraqiis; blatant and publicized mistreatment; crushing of Fallujia; high civilian casualities; total failure over three years to develop useful Iraqi army; building of permanent bases; using US hacks in government; failing to secure borders....etc

[berni_mccoy]

5. WRONG! Iraq is in shambles because Bush is Greedy and LIED to America

We are at war so the price of oil would go up and so defense contractors could get the bulk of the $400 BILLION dollars we've spent there to date.

And don't forget, our militar is stretched to the breaking point for those same reasons.

[JackRiddler]

6. This too! Exactly...

AMERICA is a shambles because people think Bush is an idiot and his administration incompetent.

Thus they fail to see that everything they've done was intentional, and constantly give criminals a free pass.

[BurtWorm]

9. Just what I said.

Greedy, incompetent fools.

:toast:

[JackRiddler]

7. k & r

[Johonny]

10. You know

Hindsight is not wisdom


Hmm... isn't experience a part of wisdom. Those that can't apply what they've learned aren't very wise.