[BleedBurgundy]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

I agree. Don't you think it was a failure of Administration to properly frame this entire deal? My biggest problem with the whole thing even from the beginning before it ever turned bad was that this wasn't about WMDs or Saddam. It was about establishing a democracy in the Middle East from which we hoped more democracy could bloom. The Administration though, sold it in simpler terms, relying on fear to convince Americans this was the right way to go rather than explaining that this was a long term proposition with somewhat less concrete goals than simply eradicating a tyrant and removing danegrous WMDs.
You seem to view the Administration and the military as one cohesive unit thinking in the same ways and tracking on the same course. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While the military commanders may have understood what they were up against in Iraq I don't think there is one shred of evidence to show that the Administration did. And the Administration, through Rumsfeld and his cohorts, were responsible for the "plan". My quibble isn't with the military in any way.

Finally, I would say that ignoring what went wrong just to focus our efforts on winning seems pretty simple to me. I'd like to think that we are smart enough as a society to do both at the same time. I feel like that point is made to simply put off thinking about how much we screwed this up because it will be hard and embarrassing.

You are absolutely correct on the bolded point, I couldn't agree more.

Regarding your comment on Govt. and Military being a cohesive unit, definitely not. My perspective is from down to top, vs top down. I do honestly believe that GW and the rest of these guys had good intentions. It may be naive but I have no proof to the contrary. Was it ham handed? Without a doubt. I think that there were a lot failures along the way and it cannot all be laid solely at the feet of the administration. There's a lot of responsibility to go around.

As to your last point, I respectfully disagree. I do not believe that with the tremendous impact that the Fourth Estate has on popular opinion and therefore legislative decision making, that we can do both (finishing the war in Iraq and Performing an objective critical analysis of the process) at the same time. I simply do not have that kind of faith in humans. I'd much prefer us to have "tunnel vision," finish the task at hand and then evaluate it. The time for comprehensive analysis is before and after, not during a project.