The Mistakes in Iraq

For years now I have had a running debate with my friend Budweiser down here in the unnamed port city to our south about the original mistakes made in Iraq by the Bushies. I have always felt that with everything that was at stake it was pathological for the Bushies to cheap out (among other problems). This analysis by Kenneth M. Pollack, Director of Research, Saban Center for Middle East Policy in The Middle East Review of International Affairs won't win the debate for me, but it does tend to back me up. The key paragraph:

If Iraq does slide into all-out civil war, the Bush Administration will have only itself to blame. It disregarded the advice of experts on Iraq, on nation-building, and on military operations. It staged both the invasion and the reconstruction on the cheap. It never learned from its mistakes and never committed adequate resources to accomplish either its original lofty aspirations or even its later, more modest goals. It refused to believe intelligence that contradicted its own views and doggedly insisted that reality conform to its wishes. In its breathtaking hubris, the Administration engineered a Greek tragedy in Iraq, the outcome of which may plague us for decades

The article then goes on to examine what it calls the Seven Deadly Sins of Failure. It's certainly worth a read.

All of this puts us in a hard position. It is difficult for people like me to keep in mind that we should want, and assist in any way we can, for the Bush administration to succeed in Iraq. We will all benefit if the administration's last two years are successful enough to make Bush look good. I would like to damn him and his abettors to Hell for at least a weekend or two, but I want him to succeed.

I just am out of ideas how this might yet happen.