krebscycle

It’s depressing to read Tom Nichols try to rationalize  the Iraq War and excuse its supporters (like himself). Nichols even realizes, to some degree, the exceptional mess that the Bush administration created.

I supported the war, just as I supported the 1991 war. […]

Nonetheless, we screwed up the execution beyond belief. I have spent ten years in classrooms with many of the men and women who saw it first-hand, some of whom paid dearly for the arrogance of Rumsfeld and others. I am continually stunned by what I hear, and I can only agree with Ambassador Barbara Bodine, who often said: “There were 500 ways to do it wrong, and two or three ways to do it right. What I we didn’t understand was that we were going to go through all 500.”

But (in the comments):

My point, exactly, is that many liberals and many academics cannot think clearly about the Gulf War because they are obsessed with Bush. If that’s the “focus” you’ve noted, then I’m pleased that you understood the post.

In the run-up to the Iraq War who could have believed that Bush, Rumsfeld, Feith, Wolfowitz, and the rest of that clown car, had the ability, the intelligence, the knowledge or the sense of duty and humility to organize a cup of coffee, let alone a massive war and occupation in the Middle East – of all places?

Q: Don, why did you put ant-poison in the coffee?

A: You go with the granulated white powder you have, not with the granulated white powder you might want.

Doug Feith, the man Norman Schwarzkopf said was the stupidest person in the world. And Dick Cheney – did anyone read Schwarzkopfs book? And why would anyone trust the “experts” who trusted our soldiers to these people ever again?  I can remember, so clearly, in the run-up to the war, feeling a terrible sense of horror as the media, the pundits, and the experts almost unanimously cheered for the catastrophe that unfolded just as many of us predicted. I can also remember wishing fervently to be surprised – wishing to see a success, one that would show my forebodings to be the product of error and ignorance. Maybe things would go brilliantly or even not disastrously and I could, shamefaced and happy, just work on my business and leave politics to the smart people. But no, things worked out as every clear eyed observer said it would.

Zinni says Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time – with the wrong strategy. And he was saying it before the U.S. invasion. In the months leading up to the war, while still Middle East envoy, Zinni carried the message to Congress: “This is, in my view, the worst time to take this on. And I don’t feel it needs to be done now.”

But he wasn’t the only former military leader with doubts about the invasion of Iraq. Former General and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Centcom Commander Norman Schwarzkopf, former NATO Commander Wesley Clark, and former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki all voiced their reservations.

Zinni believes this was a war the generals didn’t want – but it was a war the civilians wanted.

“I can’t speak for all generals, certainly. But I know we felt that this situation was contained. Saddam was effectively contained. The no-fly, no-drive zones. The sanctions that were imposed on him,” says Zinni.

“Now, at the same time, we had this war on terrorism. We were fighting al Qaeda. We were engaged in Afghanistan. We were looking at ‘cells’ in 60 countries. We were looking at threats that we were receiving information on and intelligence on. And I think most of the generals felt, let’s deal with this one at a time. Let’s deal with this threat from terrorism, from al Qaeda.”

CBS

And even yet, here’s Tom Nichols

My own theory is that intellectuals hated Bush not for what he did, but for who he was. Specifically, they hated him because he didn’t care about them. It’s important to remember that many people espouse politics as a form of self-actualization: they choose political positions based on what they think those positions say about themselves to others: “I support Obamacare because I love the poor, and that makes me a good person, and certainly a better person than you,” or “I hate gay marriage because Jesus loves me more than you and I’m going to Heaven.” Sanctimony is always the dread companion of political conviction.

This is really sad and sadly unreflective – talk about “sanctimony”.  Perhaps some of us are “obsessed” about Bush because he sent our soldiers off to fight so lightly, so carelessly, without armour, without a plan, with Ayn Rand groupies sitting in air conditioned palaces in the Green Zone while multiple tour “stop-loss” troops endured the aftermath of Operation Grand Fuck Up.

Perhaps Dr. Nichols psycho-analysis is misplaced, and his obsession with the motives of people who detest Bush and Rummie and the rest of the neo-con cranks for what they did to America is a feeble attempt to deflect blame.  Maybe he could devote some time to wondering what combination of arrogance, ignorance, and insulation let so many “experts” blow off warnings from General Zinni. Maybe he could ask why when General Odum said:

“"The president’s policy is based on illusions, not realities. "There never has been any right way to invade and transform Iraq." 

it didn’t give him sufficient grounds to at least think twice about the rush to war. And perhaps he could devote a little time to wondering what it was that made him so blind at the time.  And yet, as the war in the Ukraine threatens, here’s Tom Nichols lecturing other people on their need to read some history if they dare to challenge his judgement and expertise.