1) over in less than a year
2) reconstruction self financed through oil sales
3) lower international oil prices
4) no post-conflict occupation and our troops would not be nation builders
5) stabilize the Middle East
6) Iraq had WMD's
None of that has been proven to be true or even in retrospect within the realm of the potential.
I do recall G. W. saying something along the lines of "if all else fails we'll try intelligence." For me that about sums up the current administration, and apparently all else has yet to fail.
While U.S. casualties in Iraq have lessened, sectarian atrocities are continuing. Nobody seems to have any idea how we can extricate ourselves without risking a worse disaster. As for "winning," not even John McCain is still calling for more troops. Perhaps the call for more troops would clue in the American public to the upcoming conflict with Iran, so they keep their mouths shut.
Meanwhile, I'm confused how a border state ex-governor could be so clueless about the illegal immigration situation. Maybe there is a lot of thought and purpose behind his flawed stance on Iraq, Iran, and illegal immigration. Perhaps he is blinded by his lust for starting pre-emptive war. The president is now telling us all that he is in the "doctrine of prevention," mode towards Iran. Does he mean prevent peace in the Middle East? Am I the only one who believes he is lying?
Illegal immigration is one long war which we are losing, Iraq and soon to be Iran, are the others.
The Bush legacy will depend on Iraq, Iran, and the Middle East. I predict that history will judge him as the "lost the long war," president. That's because as many as 250,000 Iraqi civilians have been slaughtered in our "just remove Saddam" war. The president would have to be regarded in the Islamic world as the last of the "Rightly-Guided Caliphs," in order to be loved by Arab nations for his killing. He seems to have a knack for making enemies where there were none. With Condi and the Islamic stance on females, his state department diplomacy with the Arab street is like a "bull in a china closet."
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes...known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
- James Madison, Political Observations, 1795
