Iraq: "Recent History"

[GorTex6]

The insurgency started well before the 2004 election and was going strong during the election. The war itself did not start until several months after the 2002 election.

It is possible that planners were misled by the weak response of the Islamic terrorist in Afghanistan, which is still something of a puzzle to me when you consider how strong their opposition was to the Soviet occupation.

Much of the insurgency in Iraq is just the Saddamites doing what they were doing before he was deposed. That they did not anticipate the Saddamites would continue to do their thing is a failure of the intelligence analyst. Perhaps that is why they are trying to distract attention with all their other leaks. It should be considered another failure of the CIA in the lead up to the war.

If memory serves me correctly, everyone was more concerned with electing/re-electing their idiot into office at a critical time. Should anyone criticise or support the war plan they were instantly earmarked in the "us vs them"(or pinko vs warmongerer) mudslinging. Certain political entities used the debate to rally voters while others exploited the divisiveness; I fell for it too. The military was also so far stuck on its jominian/clausewitzian hubris that it did give a f&%$ either way. From hindsight, I cannot remember any logical debate during this year.