Leadership Lost

Count me as one of those who had high hopes for President Bush. Before sharing my disappointment with Mr. Bush I'll offer that I do hold in spite people with an "I told you so" attitude. There was much to hope for when Bush took office and I have found that people with loud voices and wagging fingers are oft long on complaining and remarkably silent when asked for constructive ideas.

That said, I am bitterly disappointed with a great number of decisions the Bush administration have made. I can't imagine how the Iraq war could have been handled any worse. It was based on flimsy, and a likely dishonest representation of the facts as justification. Let me say that I agree with the idea to topple Saddam, violently if need be, but strongly disagree with misleading the American people into supporting the war. Colin Powell exemplified my approach, which exhausted diplomacy--however ridiculous it seemed. The diplomacy was never for Saddam's benefit but for the world. We should have been clear and focused with the American public and the world that this was a mission to topple Saddam. Period. It would have been far wiser to seek a coalition, not so much for the invasion, but for the stabilizing U.N. force to sweep in afterwards.

Once inside Iraq we didn't move nearly fast enough to reestablish basic services to win the hearts and minds. We didn't create clear "sweep zones" where we effectively turned over the more stable areas to the new provisional Iraqi government. And of course we made the fatal mistake of dismissing the Iraqi army rather than repatriating it under a new Iraqi command.

Now we are faced with what I can only imagine is an inevitable civil war brought on by the long-suffering struggle between Suni and Shiite Muslims. Moving quickly and decisively would have done much to dispel the tensions that pulled people back into their old habits.

On the diplomatic front Bush failed to capitalize on the liberation of the Shiite population from Saddam's persecution. Handled better this could have gone far to renew ties with Iran, especially now that their leader has revealed himself as insecure and dangerously uninformed in the ways of the West. I wonder how much of the diatribes we're now hearing from this country today could have been avoided by making international "hay" from the Shiite liberation and to show the world the America is not at war with Islam. In this we have also failed miserably.

The capstone of this grief are the horrific events at Abu Grehb prison and more recent reports of what (as of this writing) appear to have been a massacre of innocent Iraqi civilians by U.S. troops. Our proud men and women in uniform have the best discipline and training of any force in the world. American soldiers simply don't just snap! I can only surmise that leadership and morale must be on razor's edge for events like this to occur.

What President Bush has been missing all along is honesty, planning, and savvy. The American people to this day are rarely told the accurate and complete story of life on the ground in Iraq. Instead we hear about virtually meaningless structural "victories" of governmental organization. This information means about as much to me as it does to the average Iraqi citizen. Planning was and is very poor. As for savvy--if there was any question in the minds of your average poor Muslim man on the street anywhere in the world as to American intentions--we have outright handed them the ideological stick with which they will try to beat us. This alone is a setback in American policy interests that will take many years to eradicate.

I am grieved to think that Iraq may be a "Vietnam", but for different--sadder reasons. This was not a military standoff. Iraq is a failure of leadership, focus, and follow-through. It tells the world that after a truly jaw-dropping display of force projection that Americans will fail to follow through and devolve into confusion. After years spent telling the world we have a grand plan for the welfare of all mindkind a display like this would leave anyone asking "OK--So where's the plan?" The tragedy is that we really do have a good plan for how a free people can live. The bungling in Iraq will close the ears of many of the people who would benefit most from the message.

Like every American, and perhaps much of the world, I want the U.S.A. to be a good guy with a shiny silver star. It will take a long time and a lot of bridge-building to recoup that image.