Fast forward seven years later. Wading through rivers of spilled young blood, and trillions of US tax dollars blanketing the region---we still await seeing Iraquis throw roses at the feet of US troops----which the calculating pukeneos told Bush would happen when we "liberated" them.
Most telling---Perle, Feith, and the Kristols are still walking around, pontificating on US foreign policy---while Bush is effectively muzzled-----prevented from telling the sordid tale of the pukes in the WH.
There's something very wrong with this picture.
One of Dubya's 'faults' is his Loyalty to his 'friends', those he trusted or those he hired - like the stuttering Press Sec; Porky Pig. So IMHO it'll be years before Bush un-muzzles himself with a Book on what REALLY happened.
Now, as to those 3 neocons -- especially 'little Billy' Kristol. What really, REALLY, fried my ___, was as soon as things turned bad with Bremmer and the "insurgents", that maggot deserted Bush and disowned the whole Iraq 'adventure'. The things he was saying on Brit Hume's Special report almost made my head explode. It was everyone's fault except the neocons.
Well, to be fair, after the immediate fall of Saddam and Baghdad, I do remember our troops being greeted with 'roses'. And on Fox they showed quite a few Iraqis who DID praise Bush. But it didn't last long, that's a fact. I don't know if it was the 1st guy Dubya sent or Bremmer who 'screwed the pooch' by firing all Baathist Party members from their jobs, but it was downhill from there.
On thing for sure, as soon as that 'cleric' in Sadar City, Moktada al-Sadr, raised and released his Mahdi Army to kill and create havoc at will - he should have been 'Terminated With Extreme Prejudice'. That would have nipped the 'insurgency' in the bud. Then all Iraqis (and al-Qaeda) would have known the US wasn't screwing around and we'd shoot 'Unlawful Combatants' on sight. But no, we treated them with kid gloves and let the 'unrest' fester by fighting a 'P.C. War'.
Another major problem with the war, was from the beginning, and that was created by ... Colin Powell. Thanks to him, and him alone, the 4th Infantry Division could NOT invade Iraq from the North as planned. While he dithered the 4th ID floated at sea for a month. Finally Turkey had enough of Powell's nonsense so the 4th ID had to come in from the South, like the 3rd ID had previously done. This created the deadly Sunni Triangle and Saddam's final place of refuge.
If Powell had done HIS job the 4th ID would have met up with the 3rd ID around Tikrit in a pincer movement and all Baathist resistance would have been crushed. And all that loose ordinance wouldn't have been let laying around to make IEDs, AND we wouldn't have lost so many troops.
(everyone forgets about Powell's screwup and the 4th ID having to float at sea.)
So a lot of the mess can be laid at Colin's feet, but he's 'untouchable'.