Bush's Cut and Run Antics in 2004 and What They Mean for Today

Watched Frontline last night: "The Lost Year in Iraq," about the time between the fall of Baghdad and hand-over of "sovereignity" Iraq. It was incredibly damning.

The thing that really stuck out: Bush's cut-and-run tactic for the hand over. And the timetable in which he enacted his tactic.

What became clear is that Bush wanted out of Iraq as soon as possible. It was supposed to be so easy (like The Streets might say), but they flubbed it badly. They let chaos reign, and famously excused it.

They didn't count the cost. They didn't know the country, its people, its character. They made bad decisions and left the governing power over a powder keg in the hands of people walled in from every side by angry citizens which matches lit.

The people I began to feel most sorry for, other than the Iraqis, for whom the word "disillusioned" must be an understatement, is the US military. They are left to be the police in an ungovernable war zone. It's like a guard dog surrounded by wolves in sheep's clothing. Who are we protecting and from whom are we protecting them?

If Bush had been serious about getting Iraq stabilized, he wouldn't have cut and run from his civilian/political responsibilities. He wouldn't have set up what was by most accounts too short a time period in which to create the conditions for a functioning Iraqi government.

For all the talk of Democrats being cowards (which is what the "cut and run" charge is all about), it is the Bush administration that saw the gaping maw of civil violence that Iraq was becoming and decided to take his envoys out on a secret flight and leave the mess for the military to try to clean up.

If I know anything I didn't know before watching Frontline last night, it is that the political and military commands were never in sync and that competence in both were needed to get Iraq back from the chaos that awaited.

We just left it to Rumsfeld and the revolving door of Iraqi leaders. It was a doomed from the moment that this de facto plan was conceived. The people in Iraq and the soldiers have borne the brunt of Bush's cowardice.