What do you think of Bush/Blair admissions of 'mis-steps' Now that Iraq is in a mess?
609655
Is this the same trickster who changed the reasons he invaded Iraq?\n\nI expect him to say next that Clinton and Kerry made him cause the mis-step.
931450
That's just a rehash of Blair's 'with rights comes responsibility' line - for everyone but him - he's just been giving his best one liners to Bush.  That couldn't have taken long!
916575
Sun Tzu said in "The Art of War" in 500 BC that engaging in a protracted campaign on foreign soil would eventually lead to failure.  I think that the problem has been a lack of planning and a lack of definition regarding our strategic goals.  I think that we entered this conflict for the wrong reasons, without a plan, and without measurable goals. Then, we tried to create a plan and strategic objectives on the fly. This is a national embarrassment of monumental proportions, and an act that will change the course of history against the United States. I only hope that somthing can be salvaged from this debacle, but it will take a level of cooperation and compromise that seems unlikely until bush leaves office.
690361
My current belief is that the president is not smart enough to realize what he's doing.\n\nOh how I'd absolutely LOVE to send his ass overseas
382004
yes, I have. it was that supposed letter among the English government about the invasion of Iraq.\nI do not know for sure what to think, since I don't live in England so I don't know as much as they do. But I do believe that Tony Blair is a very smart man so if there was a conspiracy I don't think he had anything to do with it.\nI think of it like this: England doesn't have an agenda against Iraq like we had. and plus, if England was going to crack down on terrorism, they have a whole mess of it in their own back yard, why would they go to Iraq unless they really thought it necessary?\nit's possible Blair was led on, but I doubt it. \nI believe that the weapons did exist and they were smuggled out of the country before the war started. I mean come on, we told them in advance exactly when were coming.\nI think the war was started for good reason, but we went about it all the wrong way and continue to do so.
711923
Very badly I'm sad to say.  We should have known this,  and no doubt Bush was told of this possibility by his military.  I don't believe it is republican pride so much as from everyone's being deliberately lied to about why we should  have been there in the first place.  We should have gone to Afghanistan to get Osama, whatever happened to him?  He's probably  sitting in a Paris cafe drinking coffee and reading about Iraq in the paper.  Iraq was a deception perpetrated on the public,taking advantage of the patriotism of the American people.  The shame is that it looks like Iraq will never improve, only serving those who are pro fitting from it, while our troops get wounded and die, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis perish.
634051
True.  Our government lied to us about why we were going in, and like sheeps to slaughter we believed it.  Now that we are there we can't just pull out and let whoever can grab the most power the quickest take over.  I for one apologize to those who lost loved ones because our president is a warmongering moron but can't support a full pullout of troops until the Iraqi people have a firm hold on their country (i.e. government is stable and not under dictatorship).  And no there is no honesty in the U.S. government.  We gave them power and they took it and have used it without us REALLY keeping up with what they are doing.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
449774
It's my country - and I love it.\n\nBut I hate what it has become in the eyes of the world. through Blair's stupidity\n\nHOW can anyone with a brain respect Blair? Bush's little lapdog? Desperate for his place in history, no matter how many people have to die?\n\nAssume the poster who hates imperialism also hates the US?\n\nBTW Simo - what's YOUR answer? You're in uniform in your pic - don't think I don't support the troops in places like Iraq and Afgahistan - I just don't think you should have been sent.\n\nASKSULEMAN is an idiot - it was the US who forced the UK into the invasion of Iraq. He cites a lot of sources, but I doubt he's read any of them.
698924
to RLP and Mini me...Iraq didn't come over here and blow us up (nor will they ever)....As far as the question...I fail to have a glimmer of an idea as to why re pub's hold on to their blind faith in george bush (lower case letter's emphasized). he is a mad man and his staff are either smart crooks or inept peter principle recipients
573119
Murtha is absolutely right. \n\nEvery reason the Bush administration has given for going to Iraq has proven to be a lie, and every justification they have made for staying in Iraq is complete nonsense.\nIt is time to declare Iraq a failed mission, and cut our losses. It is time to come home.
331371
We had no business getting in this debacle.We had no strategy,no exit plan,and no reason to think thatthere were WMD's except by the word of our prez. He thought we could "shock and awe " them into submission and topple saddam .Big mistake.Now,if we cut and run,we're screwed,if we stay we're screwed.The only thing now to hope for is that Iraq can get some semblance of a gov. in tact and we can get the hell out of there.I am also sick of people trying to justify this war.Bush's legacy will be that of a lying,smug,idiot and will be rembered in the history books as the worst President ever.
1055860
yes\n\nDuring a prime time press conference on April 13, President Bush was asked to name a mistake that he has made since taking office and what he has learned from it. Bush, who was unable to answer the question, admitted "maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with [a mistake]." But weeks later, Bush still hasn't answered the question. In the interest of assisting the President with this surprisingly difficult task we've compiled this list of 100 mistakes he has made since taking office:\n\nIraq\n\n1. Failing to build a real international coalition prior to the Iraq invasion, forcing the US to shoulder the full cost and consequences of the war.\n\n2. Approving the demobilization of the Iraqi Army in May, 2003 – bypassing the Joint Chiefs of Staff and reversing an earlier position, the President left hundreds of thousands of armed Iraqis disgruntled and unemployed, contributing significantly to the massive security problems American troops have faced during occupation.\n\n3. Not equipping troops in Iraq with adequate body armor or armored HUMVEES.\n\n4. Ignoring the advice Gen. Eric Shinseki regarding the need for more troops in Iraq – now Bush is belatedly adding troops, having allowed the security situation to deteriorate in exactly the way Shinseki said it would if there were not enough troops.\n\n5. Ignoring plans drawn up by the Army War College and other war-planning agencies, which predicted most of the worst security and infrastructure problems America faced in the early days of the Iraq occupation.\n\n6. Making a case for war which ignored intelligence that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.\n\n7. Deriding "nation-building" during the 2000 debates, then engaging American troops in one of the most explicit instances of nation building in American history.\n\n8. Predicting along with others in his administration that US troops would be greeted as liberators in Iraq.\n\n9. Predicting Iraq would pay for its own reconstruction.\n\n10. Wildly underestimating the cost of the war.\n\n11. Trusting Ahmed Chalabi, who has dismissed faulty intelligence he provided the President as necessary for getting the Americans to topple Saddam.\n\n12. Disbanding the Sunni Baathist managers responsible for Iraq's water, electricity, sewer system and all the other critical parts of that country's infrastructure.\n\n13. Failing to give UN weapons inspectors enough time to certify if weapons existed in Iraq.\n\n14. Including discredited intelligence concerning Nigerian Yellow Cake in his 2003 State of the Union.\n\n15. Announcing that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, below a "Mission Accomplished" banner – more U.S. soldiers have died in combat since Bush's announcement than before it.\n\n16. Awarding a multi-billion dollar contract to Halliburton in Iraq, which then repeatedly overcharged the government and served troops dirty food.\n\n17. Refusing to cede any control of Post-invasion Iraq to the international community, meaning reconstruction has received limited aid from European allies or the U.N.\n\n18. Failing to convince NATO allies why invading Iraq was important.\n\n19. Having no real plan for the occupation of Iraq.\n\n20. Limiting bidding on Iraq construction projects to "coalition partners," unnecessarily alienating important allies France, Germany and Russia.\n\n21. Diverting $700 million into Iraq invasion planning without informing Congress.\n\n22. Shutting down an Iraqi newspaper for "inciting violence" – the move, which led in short order to street fighting in Fallujah, incited more violence than the newspaper ever had.\n\n23. Telling Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan about plans to go to war with Iraq before Secretary of State Colin Powell.\n\nCounterterrorism\n\n24. Allowing several members of the Bin Laden family to leave the country just
844158
There are a great number of ways that the Bush Administration could mishandle the Iraq conflict even more. Here are just a few:\n*Declare war on Iran as well\n*Use Nuclear weapons (tactical or otherwise)\n*Use chemical weapons\n*Remove all troops imediately without training the Iraqis first\n*Get Israels help in Iraq\n*Inflame the Sunni/Shia divide even more\n*impose some form of govt that will not work (like a traditional democratic govt)\n*Refuse to accept advice from people with half a clue of what is going on.\n\nThere are just a few of the many ways that this situation could get worse, now lets just hope that it doesn't...
709585
Go big.  We made this mess, we have a responsibility to clean it up.  We need to stabilize that region.  Walking away will only let the chaos we've already created escalate.\n\nIt was an incredibly stupid thing to do from the outset, going into Iraq.  Bush, and the people who supported him shouldn't be still calling the shots over there, based on their track record alone.  But, for the first time since the man took office, I find myself agreeing with him on one point.  It's a mistake to leave Iraq in this mess.  The entire region will implode. \n\nHowever, it's idiotic to say that troop levels over there are sufficient, they are woefully inadequate at best.   Big--overwhelmingly big, preferably--is the only chance we have at getting control.\n\nBTW--I've voted pretty much straight Democrat in all elections, this last one included.  The need for change in our leadership is obvious and necessary, but I believe we can't afford to compound the error we made (I say 'we' because over half of this country supported the invasion of Iraq, so much so that 'we' re-elected Bush for a second term) by leaving Iraq to it's fate.  We will never see the end of violence in that region if we don't get control of it now.  If we leave, and Iraq becomes a terrorist stronghold, how long do you imagine it will be until Israel is engaged?  Anyone fancy a nuclear war in your lifetime?\n\n\nArcticchick--you seem to have forgotten that convenient intelligence failures, coverups, and deliberate circulation of misinformation have been the main attribute of  GW Bush's administration.   Your selected excerpts do a fine job of implying that, despite the fact that their support was based on erroneous information, the Democrats are to blame for the Iraq invasion.  You demonstrate how well Bush & Co.'s tactics worked--and continue to work--on the segment of America's populace who refuse to acknowledge what terrible consequences have resulted from their support of this administration.
740770
I believe that Iraq has shown how dysfunctional this Administration and This President are. However, the country as a whole will survive his incompetence and deceit of the American people and the world. We have survived many catastrophes and Bad presidents. We suffered through the second least popular president after George W Bush (NIxon), and came out whole and strong. We survived Viet Nam, so I believe we can survive this tragedy in Iraq.\n\nUnfortunately, it may take a generation to win back the tarnished reputation of the US as a result of this President's complete disregard for the values and opinions of the rest of the world. He has caused more damage to international relations, and increased global terrorism more in his six years in office than I would have ever imagined possible in 3 or 4 times that amount of time.
959998
No, I think he has really shown poor judgment in the recent brouhaha over his "joke" about the Bush administration failing to study up before invading Iraq.  He >had< my vote.  He no longer has it.
784898
Someone in the White House erased about fifteen minutes of tap that was the famous gap. That fueled everyone's suspicion that the White House was lying about the President's role in the Whitewater burglary at the National Offices of the Democratic Party in Washington DC.\nThe infamous plumbers went into the Democrats National Offices and got caught in the process. These hack spy's worked directly out of an office in the Whitehouse.\nPresident Richard Nixon was forced to resign his Office or face certain impeachment and undoubtedly stand trail for breaking the law.\nWatergate is an amazing story as interesting and disturbing as the Iraq War story is in terms of the health of our Democracy. In both cases, the President of the United States willfully broke the laws of the land and put the Country into a Constitutional crisis that undermined the confidence of the people in the nature and execution of the institutions of the United States Government.\nOf course the later crisis is not over yet, but there has been no official oversite over the conduct of President Bush leading up to the invasion of Iraq. (It is coming however, don't miss it!)