September 08, 2004
They told us it would be Easy
By Byron LaMasters
Remember Shock and Awe? Remember how we'd crush Iraq in a matter of days with swift, coordinated attacks and the best military technology in the world? Well, we did. And that was the easy part. If only they would have had a coherent plan for the peace...
Why couldn't the war have just lasted one month as Bush would have led us to believe when he said "Mission Accomplished"?
Seriously, how can anyone make a rational case for Bush's leadership in Iraq? He told us that all the major combat opperations were completed, only to see more than four times more Americans lose their lives than before major combat opperations were completed - not to mention entire cities are still uncontrollabe and ungovernable.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at September 8, 2004 09:47 AM
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I would make the case that the US liberated a nation with only 1000 casualties. Compare it to other wars and conflicts. It's a good thing the number's that low, not a bad thing that it's that high.
Iraq is hardly liberated. Tell that to the people in Falluja and Sadr City. The fact is that many of these casualties could have been avoided had we gone into Iraq with a real coalition, where the responsibility and rebuilding were shared among a broad coalition.
The Bush administration did a great job of winning the war in Iraq, but they completely failed to plan for winning the peace. They assumed that everything would be fine and that we'd be treated as liberators by the entire country. Instead, the Bush adminstration did nothing to anticipate or prevent the insurgency, and once one broke out, they were slow to respond, and many cities in Iraq today are still ungovernable and out of control. Why? The Bush administration failed to adequately prepare both the United States public, and our military for what would happen after we "accomplished our mission" in Iraq.
One data point missing on the graph is the date that Saddam was captured. Remember all the retoric about how that would put an end to the insurgency and remember how Dean was crucified for saying that it didn't make things safer?
As I recall, it was in November 2003 but I haven't bothered to google it up.
I dont remember the Bush adminstration ever saying publicly that the war would be easy or short or anything of that sort. I think what I remember him saying was that it would be long and hard and require sacrifice.
Its unfortunate that anyone was killed, even one person dead is too many. But the numbers are very low. More people are murdered in DC each year by their own neighbors than are killed in the Iraq war each year.
Still, the post-war administration is difficult. The Democrats pressued us to turn over power as soon as possible, and now they continue to blame the US for administrative failures. Bush was damned if he did, damned if he didn't.
I don't think the war has gone peachy, but it was never sold as an "easy" war. Never.
Someone who does have a rational case for Bush's Iraq invasion is Cheney but it is not about our national security. Its about his bank account.
Check out http://www.cheneycomeclean.com for detailed look at Cheney's financial stake in the War in Iraq
Bush did declare an end to major combat - about 850 U.S. troops deaths ago. That, of course, has come back to haunt him.
Mission Accomplished is when were supposed to stop paying attention...
