Bush Plan for Iraq Exposed.

[Tom Rinaldo]

One word; Invade. That was the Bush plan. Unambiguous and decisive, bold even. Bush didn't need France's approval to invade, or Germany's, or Russia's, or Syria's, or the Democrats for that matter. He just marched right in and succeeded Damn it. Invasion accomplished. Now let's see Kerry come up with a plan for Iraq. Bush went first, now it's Kerry's turn. Fair is fair.

[GimmeDANEger]

1. succeeded? n/t

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. Sure the plan succeeded. They had a plan to invade...

...and they invaded according to their plan. That was as far as their planning got. Iraq successfully invaded, check that one off. Now what's Kerry's plan for Iraq?

That's the Republican line isn't it? Hussein is in jail, Bin Ladin isn't. One for two is great in Baseball, Bush's favorite sport. Of course there are a few small details yet to be worked out on the ground...

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. Actually there was one follow up part to the Bush plan...

...send in the corporations to "rebuild Iraq". That part worked out fine also, for the Corporations. Not so well for Iraq, maybe, but the Bush Administration also had a plan to create high paying jobs for Americans. In Iraq. A little risky maybe, but high paying. Of course the risk is only to the grunts who go over to drive trucks so they can support their families back home. There's no risk to the large corporate stock holders back in the good old USA, but hey, Corporations are people too.

[cliss]

4. As much as I would like to argue the point,

I have to agree with you. They wanted Iraq. They marched into Iraq. They got it. They really did succeed with their plans, if ever so tenuous...

So they did "succeed"....from the Administration's point of view. Stan Goff wrote that "they wondered if they could blast their way in and hold it. They told themselves that they could".

However, the rest of the world sees this as a colossal failure. Millions here in the US agree.

The long-term truth is we will probably not be able to hang onto our prize. We will be bankrupt before we are able to finish the job which is to build several huge surveillance bases and the world's largest embassy (3,000 employees headed by Mr. Death himself).

But for now, they're enjoying themselves.

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. Actually securing Iraq for U.S. interests was their Goal...

...and they will fail at that Goal, at great cost to both Iraq and America, but their Plan never got much further than a strategy to invade and depose Hussein. To the extent that there was a follow up "plan" it was to open up Iraq to U.S. Corporations, and to hand the government over to Chalabis. They had some initial success with the first part, the second part of course blew up in their faces.

My sarcastic point mostly is that the Republicans attack Kerry for not having a good enough plan for Iraq, while Bush invaded Iraq with essentially no plan (beyond pie in the sky "we'll be accepted as liberators"), for restoring stability to it.

[Tom Rinaldo]

6. Bush was also counting on the discovery of massive WMD stockpiles

to swing the tide of world opinion toward U.S. favor regarding the invasion. They planned to discredit the U.N. and embarrass countries like France and Germany into sharing post invasion costs with little voice in how the Iraq spoils would be divided. It was a massive miscalculation, based on a feverish eagerness to believe anyone who told them what they wanted to hear prior to invading.

Their desperation to find WMD directly led to a weakening of the ongoing fight in Afghanistan against the Taliban and Al Quada as they moved our best Arabic speaking assets from Afghanistan into Iraq to help in the hunt. The whole thing is a huge fiasco.