What was the single WORST mistake Bush made in Iraq?

[grytpype]

Poll question: What was the single WORST mistake Bush made in Iraq?

It's hard, I know, but if you had to choose...

Sorry there are only ten choices.

[illinoisprogressive]

1. I vote for all of the above plus the fact that Bush became president.

[grytpype]

2. Sorry, you have to pick one! It's hard, I know!

[pansypoo53219]

19. yes.

where's all of above?

[ellisonz]

3. All of the above.

But in particular, firing this man:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shinseki

[charlie]

4. Melding Iraq with the response to the 911 attacks

to assuage his Oedipal angst. 911 was the excuse to do what he'd planned since before taking office.

[Hosnon]

5. Not enough troops.

Assuming invading was the right thing to do, we should have sent what Gen. Shensinki (sp) advocated: 300,000 troops. Furthermore, assuming that the war is so incredibly vital to the future of the world, the draft should have been re-instituted, or at least a rationing system.

But if we had an overwhelming number of troops on the ground, I believe all of the other mistakes could have been absorbed.

[grytpype]

10. Not my choice, because we didn't have enough troops in the entire Armed Forces.

He couldn't have sent enough, we don't have enough, period. But he thought that was OK because the Iraqis would go along with the program and form a nice liberal democracy. He had no basis whatsoever for thinking that, certainly nothing the Iraqis did or said supported that, they didn't invite us in, did they?

[Hosnon]

11. Yeah...that's why I noted that if this whole thing was so important, the draft should

have been brought back.

And I personally don't think the Iraqis don't want us there...I think the majority could care less. They just want the trains to run on time, you know?

Of course, I don't think they affirmatively want us there either.

Edit: Too bad no one is posting about the international law vote, as it is the highest.

[grytpype]

14. 70% of Iraqis now want us to leave.

And that includes Kurdistan, if you take the Kurds out it's probably over 85%.

[Hosnon]

16. I think that is because we have fucked up their country. In the beginning of all

this mess, I think they were more apathetic about it all.

[grytpype]

6. My vote was for #1.

Not having any damned idea what the Iraqis would do after Saddam fell, just assuming they would do what Bush wanted them to do, was the father of all fuckups in Iraq.

And he's still doing it. His big new plan requires the Iraqis to do all sorts of nice things they've never done before and have no reason to do except to save Bush's ass.

[Desertrose]

7. Going there in the first place....

and all of the above.

[az chela]

8. Going to Iraq

[Horse with no Name]

9. Letting a dolt like Rush Limbaugh carry his water

Seriesly!!!!!1111!!

[Nutmegger]

12. Invading a sovereign county that did nothing to us. [n\t]

[grytpype]

13. "Violating international law" not my choice because we would be in the same mess if it was legal.

Leaving aside how it would have helped to have allies other than Bliar, legalisms are not responsible for the quagmire we are in now.

[Hosnon]

15. Agree with you there. Violating international law wasn't the cause of all these problems.

I highly doubt the insurgents, et al. would then say: "Oh look, this is all in accord with international law! Here, have some flowers!"

[Dumak]

17. Confusing question

It's hard to evaluate a question like that unless you look at it in terms of his own self-interests. So, with his self-interests being oil theft, war profiteering, and the promulgation of neocon philosophy, I am going to say that he should have tried to be more consistent with his reasons for going to war. The WMD reason backfired badly. Perhaps he could have constructed and planted phony WMD's. Then the whole "to bring democracy to the Iraqi people" should have been more carefully researched. And I'm thinking that what has done them in is that for the most part the neocons themselves are incapable of serious rational thought. They are experts at deviousness, and they do fairly well when they only have other neocons to convince, but they do not understand very well how the good people think, and have a hard time understanding that we are not all like them.

[lpbk2713]

18. The *Mission Accomplished* PR stunt was bad enough in itself.

But when he later denied having anything to do with it made him look like a weasel and it proved he was a damn liar.

[twenty4blackbirds]

20. violating international law

by invading sovereign country with too few troops. what a maroon...

[sandnsea]

21. Lying about his true motive

I still don't know what his real motive is for this war. We could have squeezed Saddam out using the humanitarian resolutions, which still would have gotten the oil.

[Erika]

22. He wanted to show he was a bigger man than his dad

Sick.

[porphyrian]

23. Redeploying the troops hunting bin Laden in Afghanistan/Pakistan to Iraq for a lie...

...in the first place. I guess the violating international law/invading sovereign country comes closest.

[MurrayDelph]

24. Coughing loose the pretzel

then all of the above.