Fiasco: Bushes War in Iraq

While I have not had the chance to read Thomas E. Ricks new book entitled "FIASCO: The American Military Adventure in Iraq", I did get the chance to read Michiko Kakutani's review of the book today in The New York Times.
What struck me was the following quote which sums up the entire appropriately labeled fiasco:

"President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 ultimately may come to be seen as one of the most profligate actions in the history of American foreign policy," Mr. Ricks writes. "The consequences of his choice won't be clear for decades, but it already is abundantly apparent in mid-2006 that the U.S. government went to war in Iraq with scant solid international support and on the basis of incorrect information -- about weapons of mass destruction and a supposed nexus between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda's terrorism -- and then occupied the country negligently. Thousands of U.S. troops and an untold number of Iraqis have died. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent, many of them squandered. Democracy may yet come to Iraq and the region, but so too may civil war or a regional conflagration, which in turn could lead to spiraling oil prices and a global economic shock."

I guess its been a couple of months since Mr. Ricks finished the book, because he obviously didn't foresee the possibility of both "civil war...[AND]...a regional conflagration".  I tease of course.  Mr. Ricks, among many others, clearly saw this disaster in the making. In fact, he reports that

"...[i]n late 2002,...70 national security experts and Mideast scholars met at the National Defense University to discuss the looming war and concluded that occupying Iraq would "be the most daunting and complex task the U.S. and the international community will have undertaken since the end of World War II." The group's emphasis on the importance of "maintaining a secure environment" in post-invasion Iraq and its recommendation against a swift dissolution of the Iraqi military would be ignored in the ensuing months."

We all know how that worked out.  Rumsfeld wanted to shock and awe, instead of providing enough troops and Bremer was forced to dissolve the Iraqi army, sending the guys home with all their weapons.  Chaos ensued.

What I would add from a geopolitical standpoint (which may be covered in the book), is that the war strengthened Iran's hand and has led to the current "regional conflagration".  

I hope to get the chance to read this book soon.  However, I already know it does not have a happy ending.

That's because we have the worst president ever!

"Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism"  Tommy J.