They really are screwups

To anyone who seriously thought that the poorly planned War with Iraq was another fight in the war on terror, my sorrow and pity are with you. You were wrong. You were suckered. This article would probably be worth reading.

But I will also retain my own sorrow- because I, like the many Americans who thought this war was a fool's enterprise, will still have to live with its consequences. We invaded as sovereign nation was not among our top five threats to national security. We did so with little international support or funding. Our government lied or at the very least deceived us to justify this war. This war created increased instability in a part of the world where instability is undesirable. The war "swelled the ranks" of a protean, stateless group of bloodthirsty fanatical terrorists known as al Qaeda, a group that previously murdered 3000 of our countymen. This war was and continues to be insanely expensive.

Saying this, I don't think we should just quit Iraq. Personally, I don't know what should be done. The situation is terribly complicated. As those WMD pollyannas like Rumsfeld tell us, (there's got to be sarin gas here somewhere) Iraq is a large country. It is also a divided country. The Sunni triangle is primarily Sunni, some of whom are the Baathists who keep blowing up our soldiers. The south is primarily Shiite, although there are many Shi'a in the Sunni triangle. Many of these Shi'a are devotees of the fiery apocalyptic Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr, who is building a shadow government to challenge the legitimacy of the CPA and who favors a Khomeini-style Muslim theocracy. The North is the quietest region of Iraq at this time, as chunks of it had not been under Baathist control in years. On the other hand, it houses a large Kurdish minority. If Iraq were to split into three sections, it is quite possible that the Kurdish north would come into conflict with Turkey. With nearly two dozen attacks on our soldiers per day, sectarian conflict, a theocratic shadow government, a hemorrhage of cash on our part, few reliable allies, overlong tours of duty for our military, etc. etc., I think the problem is clearly not that the press is too negative about Iraq.

"Intellectual" simpletons like William Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz are the problem. "Courageous" opportunists like our president are as well. Moreso than those who make policy should, the most powerful people in our government live in a world of ironclad assumptions, untainted by reality. This is confirmed daily by the administration's actions, and argued convincingly by Neal Gabler in this op-ed. And though the White House's epistemological disease is disputed (Washington Monthly has called it postmodern, Gabler calls it medieval, and Matthew Yglesias thinks it is best described as pragmatic in the Jamesian sense), there is little question that something is wrong.

sidenote: This war with Iraq was clearly been in the pipes for at least 5 years. If Ted Kennedy thinks this war was cooked up in Texas, he is clearly wrong. The Project For the New American Century has been agitating for a war with Saddam since 1998 from its offices on 17th street in DC (*). And no, the PNAC is not a lefty conspiracy, but an "educational organization" whose signatories include Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Elliot Abrams and Paul Wolfowitz. Remind me, who runs America's foreign policy?

Back to this administration's medieval, or postmodern, or pragmatic incuriousity and inflexibility- the PNACers who compelled this counterproductive war did so without a clear, well thought-out plan for the reconstruction of Iraq. They took as gospel the testimony of a con-man opportunist like Ahmad Chalabi. They misinterpreted and demogogued the statements of Hussein Kamel. They insisted, after it had been thoroughly debunked, that Mohammed Atta had met Iraqi intelligence agents in Prague. And the result is that America's foreign policy designed to keep America safe and to break the back of Islamist fanatics like Al Qaeda has merely made their work easier. Thanks, guys.

The best thing we can do is put the experts in charge. That and stop treating our allies like servants. But this administration is not going to do that, so I'm urging you to do what you can to remove these idiots from power.