Unprepared in Iran, the Follow-Up to Unprepared in Iraq
I wrote in 2002 (War With Iraq is Not the Problem) that the difficulties apparent in attacking Saddam Hussein had little to do with overcoming Iraq militarily and everything to do with aftermath. Essentially, we had for so long thirsted for the taste of rabbit that we hadn't bothered looking up any tasty recipes.
I wrote in 2002 (War With Iraq is Not the Problem) that the difficulties apparent in attacking Saddam Hussein had little to do with overcoming Iraq militarily and everything to do with aftermath. Essentially, we had for so long thirsted for the taste of rabbit that we hadn't bothered looking up any tasty recipes.
Iraq has proven out just as advertised. The battle won and the war (as well as the peace) irretrievably lost. Unable to change the facts on the ground, George Bush changed the goals, from defeating Saddam to fighting al-Qaeda to establishing democracy to bringing stability to the region to not cutting-and-running to establishing benchmarks to surging troop levels to –f…