[Enchante]

The illogical disconnect in 2003 was mind-boggling: we couldn’t have BOTH a light US/Coalition force footprint AND abolish the Iraqi military. The DoD dictated the former and the State Dept. dictated the latter. It was a recipe for disaster, and this is not 20/20 hindsight. I said so at the time, but I’m just a middle-aged keyboard babbler.

[MinorityRepublican]

This is something President George H.W. Bush wouldn't had messed up. His objectives in Persian Gulf War were clear. We knew what we had to do and when to get out.

This time, we weren't clear in what we were doing after we took out Saddam and since then we had to improvise what we are doing in Iraq which is not what we planned for.