The State Of Bush's Failures

President Bush has raised some good points about Iraq, both during the State of the Union address as well as in previous interviews: The consequences of our defeat would be dire. The current sectarian violence in Baghdad and the rest of the nation would become a full scale civil war (though many would argue that it already is), instability would likely spread to surrounding countries, and terrorists would become emboldened.

What Bush neglects to mention, however, that all these consequences will be a direct result of his actions.

Virginia Senator James Webb summed it up best when he delivered the Democratic response to Bush's address: This President led us into Iraq "recklessly" and forced us to endure "a mismanaged war for nearly four years." Harsh? Rude? Not if you consider that Bush's actions have cost thousands of American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. Webb also backed up his charges (text of Webb's speech):

"He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War; the chief of staff of the Army; two former commanding generals of Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq; the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs."

Hell, even Gerald Ford said in an interview before his death that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake.

The only thing to do now is to leave, and leave NOW. Even if you choose to blindly accept the President's reasons for the invasion of Iraq, you have to admit that the Iraqi people have been given ample opportunity to take advantage of the opportunities we handed them.

They clearly haven't, however, and there is no reason for us to continue to shed American blood in that shithole. If the Sunnis and Shiites want to kill one another because of some asinine interpretation of Islam, or who succeded Mohammad, or whatever the f*ck they're arguing about, fine, let them. Our role should merely be to try to keep the violence from spreading to neighboring countries, and the best way to do that is through diplomatic channels.

Webb concluded his response Tuesday evening with references to Presdents Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, and a warning to Bush:

"These presidents took the right kind of action for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight, we are calling on this president to take similar action in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way."

Amen to that.