"Bush blundered into a trap from which there is no way out"

[kpete]

World dispatch
Nowhere to run

After what has been described as the most foolish war in over 2,000 years, is there a way out of Iraq for President Bush, asks Brian Whitaker

There is a remarkable article in the latest issue of the American Jewish weekly, Forward. It calls for President Bush to be impeached and put on trial "for misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 BC sent his legions into Germany and lost them".

To describe Iraq as the most foolish war of the last 2,014 years is a sweeping statement, but the writer is well qualified to know.

He is Martin van Creveld-
a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and one of the world's foremost military historians. Several of his books have influenced modern military theory and he is the only non-American author on the US Army's list of required reading for officers.


Welcome as a pullout might be to many Americans, it would be a hugely complex operation. Van Creveld says it would probably take several months and result in sizeable casualties. More significantly, though, it would not end the conflict.

"As the pullout proceeds," he warns, "Iraq almost certainly will sink into an all-out civil war from which it will take the country a long time to emerge - if, indeed, it can do so at all. All this is inevitable and will take place whether George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice like it or not."

The result is that even if the US tries to leave Iraq now, in purely practical terms it is unlikely to be able to do so.

"A divided, chaotic, government-less Iraq is very likely to become a hornets' nest. From it, a hundred mini-Zarqawis will spread all over the Middle East, conducting acts of sabotage and seeking to overthrow governments in Allah's name.

The inescapable fact is that the processes Mr Bush unleashed on March 20 2003 (and imagined he had ended with his "mission accomplished" speech six weeks later) will take a decade or more to run their course and there is little that anyone, even the US, can do now to halt them.

In his eagerness for regime change in Iraq, Mr Bush blundered into a trap from which in the short term there is no way out: the Americans will be damned if they stay and damned if they leave.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1653453,00.html

[mike_c]

1. since we will have to leave sometime...

...it's better to be damned for leaving now.

[tanyev]

2. The Blunderer In Chief.

[Deja Q]

3. What trap? Revenge based on petty blood-feud is what Iraq became.

* lied about "imminent threat" when there was no threat at all.

Nothing even beginning to show a real threat to the USA HAS been found.

We were lied to.

And they were so dumb, they didn't bother to plant weapons. But given the peoples' of the world watching, to try to do so would be an even dumber thing to do.

It's as simple as that.

Now if there WAS a real threat, my responses would likely be very different; there comes a time when defense is necessary and warranted and even I would be more than proud to serve if the cause was justified. But it all was a lie, * was jumping the gun and the proof ensured his credibility was lost. (to most, but some choose to fool themselves all of the time.)

[AndyTiedye]

7. Some Reports They Tried to Plant Weapons

There were some reports that they tried to plant weapons and
the operation came under "friendly fire".

[gratuitous]

4. Bush didn't blunder into a trap

He ran, no streaked into the trap while millions and millions of people the world over were marching in the streets and screaming at that top of their lungs for him not to do it. "Blundering" into a trap implies that the trappee had no knowledge and couldn't possibly have any knowledge of the fix he was getting into, and nothing could be further from the truth.

But of course, by calling Bush's ill-considered elective war the worst war in 2,000 years, it guarantees that the reich-wingers will divert attention by arguing whether it truly is the worst war decision in 2,000 years. What about the Battle of the Greasy Grass? Or the Children's Crusade?

[Talismom]

5. This was neither a blunder nor a trap for him and the neocons.

This is exactly what they wanted and their off-shore accounts are bursting with the $$s being bled from our economy. This was a total victory for these thugs and criminals and will continue to be until the public wises up and deals with them the way the Italian people finally dealt with Mussolini and his thugs. I say hang 'em all from their feet for the good of this country.

[slaveplanet]

6. Not just a trap

A Death Trap....

Death Trap part 1 http://wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=12404
Death Trap part 2 http://wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=16584
Death Trap part 3 http://www.spitfirelist.com/mp3/F_535.mp3

[orwell]

8. Why...

...does he hate America?