After the push to Baghdad and that sideshow where President Bush landed on a US Aircraft Carrier adorned with a “Mission Accomplished” banner, Bush declared “an end to major combat operations” in Iraq, for whatever that’s worth.

After a bunch of terrorists began to chop contractor’s heads off, hang their burning corpses from bridges and kill all foreigners they could get their hands on spawning the so-called “insurgency”, the Bush Administration said it was the last gasp of a handful of Ba’athist “dead-enders”.

After Saddam Hussein was yanked out of that rat hole to be put on trial, the Administration expressed confidence that the remaining resistance would fall apart with no central figure to lead it.

After the terrorist’s strategy of using improvised explosive devices instead of direct attacks began to surface and people began to question why our troops didn’t have enough armor, the President stated unequivocally that if his commanders in the field requested armor, troops or anything, he would give them whatever they need.

After Iraqi elections punctuated by Iraqi political paralysis; when an Iraqi “Unity Government” finally did emerge, the President expressed confidence that US troops would begin to “stand down as the Iraqis stand up.”

After the death of the terrorist formerly known as Zarqawi, Bush seized the moment to send forth the heralds to trumpet his successes. He went on television and stated that he felt “something change.”

After President Bush told Americans that he was giving our troops all of the tools necessary to accomplish their mission including Rules Of Engagement that allowed United States Marines to respond to, hunt down and eliminate enemies who attack them, he assured us of victory if we just “stay the course”.

THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS, THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS.

Proclaiming an end to major combat was the most absurd, amatuerish, “Bush League” performance that I have ever witnessed. That photo-op will go down in history as the single biggest gaffe in the second-worst Presidency in the history of the United States.

Failing to imagine what would occur in a power vacuum led to the bloodshed in Iraq that continues with an average of about 10 dead every day. “Insurgents” don’t wantonly murder civilians like someone would poison an anthill. In Iraq it is wholesale slaughter. Regardless of what Republicans say, in a previous article, I outlined why “staying the course” is actually immoral and sinful.

With the crisis in Lebanon, the Administration’s stance was that they wouldn’t call for an immediate cease-fire because they feared what would happen in a power vacuum. One can surmise that they learned their lesson from Iraq and don’t want a repeat.

Why then, can’t the administration admit so much as a simple mistake, a goose egg, a boo-boo, a brain fart, a faux pas, a boner, or a S.N.A.F.U. when it comes to Iraq?

Once again, the truth is politics.

The wretched part of all of this though, is that hundreds upon hundreds of people are dying in an orgy of hatred. And we’re left now sitting on the sidelines, hoping that our side (The Unity Government) will come out on top. Pretty rough politics, don’t you think? Makes South Korean Parliament fistfights look like child’s play.

We’ve been engaged over three years. Saddam is history. His military was disbanded and destroyed. There is a new government in place, and the situation is bleaker than ever. The cancer infesting Iraq is no weaker than it was the day Saddam was captured.

Unless we change course, we’ll be there longer than it took for the US to fight World War II. They can’t even train Iraqi police or soldiers, because the terrorists run their buses off the road and execute the recruits 30 to 50 at a time. When they do succesfully train and deploy them, their performance thus far has been spotty.

Along with our allies, we defeated the Axis Powers in about 7 years. We’ve already been in Iraq nearly half that time, and while there had been progress in forming a government, the country has been a rolling spasm of violence for the last 3 years. Without 350,000 troops securing every weapon in the country, it won’t end anytime soon and in my estimation, will escalate quite sharply.

There are several requirements of a sucessful military campaign, any of which –if not met– will doom your plan to failure. The Bush Administration was doomed from the start.

The first requirement is crystal clear objectives.

The technology, tactics, the will and the ability to exercise them to their full potential in order to bring as much force to bear against the enemy as is necessary to break their back, so they can no longer fight.

Accurate intelligence to plan your assault, but more importantly, to monitor how your enemy plans to defend against your tactics, so you can counter his defense.

The ability to sustain your momentum without getting bogged down or beaten back.

And a clear exit strategy.

The objectives were clear. Capture or kill Saddam Hussein. Liberate the Iraqi people and remove his regime from power. Repair the damage, help a friendly government get on its feet, and go home. We possess a superior military in terms of tactics, equipment, training and capabilites, so the lack of will to drop the hammer led to the failure to meet this critical requirement. That and the decision to throw US Marines to the wolves and prosecute them for murder based on the eyewitness testimony of Sunni Iraqis. Both the administration and the senior US Marine Corps leadership are to blame for this miscarriage of justice.

The intelligence was shaky at best and there is ample evidence to suggest it was “sexed up” to support a preconceived plan and that the Administration allegedly used leaks to silence those that disagreed. At the very least, there have been doubts cast about the accuracy of the threat assessments. Not much to argue there. Once again, we failed in that regard.

We had the ability to sustain our momentum, but have only been reacting to threats for the last 3 years. Who could argue? More people are dying –on average– every day than during the initial invasion. Once again, we failed to meet an essential requirement for success.

And finally, the only “exit strategy” to speak of was, once again, to “Stand down when the Iraqis stand up.” That is entirely subjective, and in the eye of the beholder, if you will. It is unacceptable as a measure of when to stop tasking your Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guard with a fools errand.