I have little trouble saying that I am not anti-war. I am anti: Stupity and incompetence and well those two about sum it up. I was not infavor of getting rid of saddam at the time we did in the way we did.
As they say all water under the bridge. Some on the other side are saying that we don't have the will to win. This post is a response to Charles Birds post linked below.. Sorry I didn't have more time to do a better job.. :)
Read this and tell me what you think.... by hilzoy
Some highlights below....
Below is the start of his response to this post..
This is the beginning but their is much more depth...
I'm quite sure that one never makes fundamental mistakes about the thing one really wants to do. Fundamental mistakes arise out of lack of genuine interest. In my opinion, that is."
"I made a very big mistake once," said Harriet, "as I expect you know. I don't think that arose out of a lack of interest. It seemed at the time the most important thing in the world."
"And yet you made the mistake. Were you giving all your mind to it, do you think? Your mind? Were you really being as cautious and exacting about it as you would be about writing a passage of fine prose? (...) One always makes surface errors, of course. But a fundamental error is a sure sign of not caring."
-- Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night"
Alot of the main point is below but it really does not, do the whole thing justice...
"But none of the people who led us into war could possibly have really cared about succeeding in Iraq. If they had, they could not have made the mistakes they did. And so, led by these feckless and irresponsible people, who were not nearly afraid enough of "defeat, nor dishonor, nor an Iraq under the terrorist heel", we invaded Iraq. Their failure of will predictably led to the present catastrophe. I completely agree with Charles about the consequences of our defeat. I just think that it's not at all clear that defeat is avoidable. We have made too many mistakes, and while they could easily have been avoided had anyone cared enough to do it right, no one did. And they cannot be undone."
*
I know this part is talking to the choir here...
The second crucial failure of will belongs to those Americans who voted for George W. Bush in 2004. By that time, his administration's incompetence in Iraq was absolutely clear, as was the fact that he had no intention either of doing things differently or of holding accountable those of his subordinates who had gotten things so catastrophically wrong. Even admitting any mistake at all seemed to be beyond him, at a time when his mistakes were obvious to anyone. It was therefore completely predictable that a second Bush administration would continue to screw things up as badly as the first.