“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country…..President George W.Bush, May 3, 2003

Not Everyone Was Convinced

Before the start of the war in Iraq a number of very influential Americans tried to wave off the Bush Administration from the invasion until the U.N. weapons inspectors had finished an extensive sweep of the whole of Iraq in search of the weapons of mass destruction which allegedly posed such a threat to the West.

Among those not quite convinced were Retired Army General Norman Schwarzkopf who had led U.S. troops in the first Gulf War more than a decade earlier. Schwarzkopf said in an interview at his office in Tampa in January 2003, “I think it’s very important for us to wait and see what the inspectors come up with and hopefully they come up with something conclusive”.

“The thought of Sadam Hussein with a sophisticated nuclear capability is a frightening thing, no question about it. But having said that, I don’t know what intelligence the U.S. government has. And before I can just stand up and say ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt, we need to invade Iraq’, I guess I would have to have better information.”

Schwarzkopf was a veteran of more than 35 years and had served in Vietnam as a young officer. He knew war and he was not the kind to pander when men’s lives were at stake. He was aware of a deepening estrangement between the Army and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It was what he called “The Rumsfeld thing”. He expressed it this way,” Candidly, I’ve gotten somewhat nervous at some of the pronouncements Rumsfeld has made. When he makes his comments, it appears that he disregards the Army. He gives the perception when he’s on TV that he is the guy driving the train and everybody else better fall in line behind him…or else.”

Rumsfeld Prevailed

“The Rumsfeld thing” prevailed in the White House. The invasion proceeded in spite of the weapons inspectors having had unfettered access to Iraq from the previous December without finding a trace of WMD. The Hussein regime was taken down, and on May 3rd 2003 Bush landed onboard the USS Lincoln and delivered his infamous speech. At the time, U.S. casualties in Iraq stood at 140. Over the next 5 years that number would swell to more than 4,000. Day after bloody day, U.S. and Coalition forces would face a meat grinder of opposition from an insurgency that was not unanticipated by the Pentagon but was certainly dismissed by Rumsfeld, Vice President Cheney (who had immodestly boasted our troops would be met and welcomed in Iraq as “liberators”), National security advisor Condoleezza Rice and President Bush himself.

Even as the insurgency enveloped Iraq in a lethal, chaotic cloud, Assistant Secretary of State, Paul Wolfowitz gave testimony before Congress in the summer of 2003, saying, “I think these people are the last remnants of a dieing cause”. Rumsfeld himself famously derided them as “dead enders”.

Thus began the pattern that has prevailed in the Bush White House with respect to the conflation of events in Iraq—deny the obvious, characterize anyone who dissents as un-American, and keep pouring more resources into the war.

The War’s Legacy

The tragic consequences that flow from the War in Iraq are numerous; from the lack of attention that has been paid to a now fully reconstituted Taliban in Afghanistan, to the long-term cost of the war now set at a shocking 2 trillion dollars. The deaths of more than 4,040 American service personnel to date and the horrific maiming of more than 25,000 more are reasons enough, given the deceit that is the wars foundation, to characterize it as a dismal failure of leadership. History is hard pressed to find a parallel in terms of the inadequacies of the rationale to invade and occupy another country. The canard of WMD is now iconic and does not incite the same feral reaction as it did in the months after the rise of the Iraqi insurgency.

From L. Paul Bremmer’s fatally flawed post invasion disbanding of the Iraqi Army, to the failure to provide up-armored vehicles or even basic, widely available body armor to troops, to the dearth of accurate, actionable Intelligence in the run up to the invasion, the Bush Administration’s lack of perception and execution is stunning in its utter transcendence.

Mission Accomplished?

Five years after George W Bush prated across the deck of the USS Lincoln and spoke with such certitude of the conclusion of his war beneath the “Mission Accomplished” banner, our country is immeasurably worse off for having engaged in this fleeting folly. And somewhere in the caves and canyons of Western Pakistan, Osama Bin laudin bides his time. Perhaps his mind is the crucible of some new date, which will live in infamy. Perhaps the days before the next 9-11 grow shorter than George Bush’s tenure in Washington. Perhaps Bin Laudin means to make good of the time he has been given by our nascent misadventure in Baghdad.

The next attack by Al Quida may not even occur on George Bush’ watch, but the first drop of blood it spills, will certainly be on his hands.