Americans are losing the Victory... Check it out!

Hmmm - I suspect it is a bit more psychological than that - and hence invisible to those affected - (as it truly seems to be) - and that it comes more from the extraordinary bitterness of the division amongst the more politicized Americans (I HOPE it doesn't exist so much for Americans not so intensely politicized - cos it's damn bad news for the country if it is).

"blame the sole country who stepped up to the plate to stop the madness? "

Hmm - that's interesting - I thought there was a mighty "coalition of the willing"? Didn't Kerry get in a lot of trouble for saying something about the thing that only mentioned America?

"he forgot Poland"

" have trouble believing that anyone intentionally planned the war poorly. There is no profit in it of any kind, for anyone, so why would they? Sun Tzu wrote; a war plan becomes useless the moment the first shot is fired."

Interesting point.

I think you are quite right - that it was not planned poorly deliberately.

What I DO think is that Rumsfeld's thoughts about how the military should be - which he battled to impose on the Pentagon - affected the plan.

The war plan finally adopted - while I understand it was something of a compromise on the even smaller military presence desired by Rumsfeld - was way below that felt necessary by the military in the plans they had drawn up post-Iraq I - and that Rumsfeld refused to listen to those who disagreed with him - bullying, marginalizing, or getting rid of, those who continued to speak out against his beliefs - including Powell, who, in the end, attempted to counsel from his position in State.

My understanding is that the overwhelming majority of military leaders thought (and many thought the invasion itself a mistake) that the military commitment was way too small - even to keep order after an initial victory - and certainly far too small to deal with an insurgency of any size.

I also understand that Rumsfeld and other neocons in power got rid of many folk in other areas germane to giving advice about such an undertaking (like Middle East experts in wherever the American government keeps them!) and installed their own people - or ignored advice they did not like.

I do not think they are alone in such behaviour in the history of people going to war - nor do I think that anyone goes about making wrong decisions militarily on purpose - but I DO think their ideology got in the way of making the most rational decisions about this.

Every war plan by committee has to be a compromise between opposing opinions. When you ask a committee anything, someone's advice will be ignored or at least be deemed less accurate. The opposing side will always attempt to capitalize on the dissenter who was ignored when errors take place. This is normal, and proves nothing. I'm glad we agree that it was not deliberately screwed up. While some may think that it was, to keep Halliburton & Friends busy, I suspect we'd have simply been on to our next theater sooner if this one had went better… and consequently they'd have stayed busy enough anyway.

Hmmm - so you have no qualm with Rummie's behaviour in the Pentagon?

BTW - where did anybody say that it was deliberately screwed up?

I don't feel that I'm sufficiently informed to have a qualm with Rummie's behavior in the Pentagon. I don't know that the War in Iraq isn't going as well as could possibly be expected, or worse than the worst Pentagon models predicted. I do know that I think it's work that needs to be done and I have little choice but to trust in the powers that be to get the job done. I also know that it's not always the most popular guy who gets the job done.

Perhaps a poor choice of words, but the implication is all over A2K. Read Squinney and Bear's responses if you think I'm imagining it.