[RichardW]

Bush was ill served by his advisors who estimated the necessary troops to get the job done. It will likely cost him the election in November. The American people will not tolerate incompetence.

[JimVT]

The American people will not tolerate incompetence.

I donno...we survived Clinton!

And what do you expect we'll get if John F. Ketchup wins?

[G.Mason]

"The American people will not tolerate incompetence."

All two of them?

Thanks for the laugh!

[xusafflyer]

If your prediction comes true then the United States is over. The world will fall into pseudo socialist-fascism (dominated by the UN) and John F'n Kerry will destroy whatever remains of this nation.

[verity]

The American people will not tolerate incompetence.

If true, Bush will be reelected!

[Coop]

Bush was ill served by his advisors who estimated the necessary troops to get the job done. It will likely cost him the election in November. The American people will not tolerate incompetence.

Not at all. Taking Baghdad in three weeks with minimal casualties? I'd say the troop strength was estimated well. As far as securing the country, who in their right mind thought it would be easy? Umm, nobody?

See, you may live in your critical little vacuum world, Richard, but the rest of us live in reality. You cannot simply send 300K troops into Iraq and ask the rest of the world to please be on their best behavior. These senior folks are making extremely tough, life-or-death decisions with resource constraints.

Your toughest decision each day, as best I can tell, is what to gripe about next.

[Little Ray]

Bush is ill served by tolerance and multiculturalism. If we were a little more severe (Fallujah should be leveled, mosques should be inspected and destroyed if used for military purposes, etc.), we would probably not have these problems. If knew where Sadr was, even if he was hiding in the most "holy" mosque in Iraq, we should hit it with daisy cutters and MOABs.
Instead we tiptoe around, worrying about offending these people. That looks weak and inspires the more psychopathic among them to try fighting.

[PreviouslyA-Lurker]

Bush was ill served by his advisors who estimated the necessary troops to get the job done. It will likely cost him the election in November. The American people will not tolerate incompetence.

We won't tolerate incompetence? We have before. (-- refer, that's refer not reefer, to last president)

[q_an_a]

they tolerated Klinton.

[jaykay]

Bush was ill served by his advisors who estimated the necessary troops to get the job done. It will likely cost him the election in November. The American people will not tolerate incompetence.

That is a nightmarish consequence of their incompentence. It is not too late for Bush to salvage something and save his presidency. He must crush Fallujah and Sadr and do it from the air with no more dead Americans. Anf keep doing the same to every hot spot that flares up. The he__ with international criticism. The U.N., E.U. and "arab street" don't vote in U.S. elections, at least not yet. Forget this "hearts and minds" B.S. I don't want their hearts or their minds.

[Jim Noble]

Bush was ill served by his advisors who estimated the necessary troops to get the job done. It will likely cost him the election in November.

Point #1: Ill served by advisors. Correct in part. Rummy would not accept the abundant professional advice offered regarding the number of troops necessary to occupy and pacify Iraq. I suspect that he knew that IF he accepted an enlarged US Army with an extended multi-division expeditionary commitment in Iraq that any chance of "transformation" would disappear into the Pentagon miasma. He was right about this, but wrong to let his desire for transformation to govern his Iraq plan. If we fail in Iraq, the only transformation will be Kerry or, more likely Hillary gutting our armed forces. In short, Rummy won his bureaucratic battle but did not interpret the battlezone information correctly. How much responsibility Bush bears for this is uncertain-but it could be a lot. By allowing the advice of Wilsonians like Powell to play a role, Bush may have allowed Rummy to believe there really was a chance of a "free Iraq" coming into existence which could help us out and repress the bad guys side-by-side with us, eventually replacing us in this role. If we fail, this fantsay will be what does us in.

Point #2: Will cost him the election. Bush needs victory in Iraq to be reelected. There is no question about this. He does not need all matters settled, just like Lincoln did not need Lee's surrender to win in 1864-but until Sherman burned Atlanta, Lincoln was seen as likely to lose. Bush needs a similar, bold, simple-to-understand step that tells the booboisie that victory is in hand. Without it, he is going home in January. He does have six months to pull it off, and while his listening to bad advice about postwar Iraq and his neo-Wilsonian tendencies are both reasons to be concerned, he's not finished yet.

If he nukes Najaf, I'm fairly sure he'll be upwards of 400 electoral votes come November. If he's negotiating with camel-humping barbarians while we lose 60 guys a week come November, anybody-even John 'effin Kerry-can and will beat him easily.

[SittinYonder]

So they'll go with Kerry over Bush? I don't see Kerry effectively positioning himself as the competent candidate.

[SMARTY]

Only a really narrow, partisan and earthbound view of of the facts and the stakes in this could permit a person to see this President or his policies as anything less than totally efficient and effective. You COULD say that Bush is not clairvoyant. But then who is?

How many ways can it be?

'He knew about the attacks and was preparing all along?' ...OK Then why say that the deployment of force was either pre emptive or too minimal?

'He was badly served?' OK...then why blame the man personally or condemn the recent setbacks, (which would not really be called setbacks by anyone who has ever read military history)?

In any case, if he was or is badly served, (and I don't buy that either) he's doing really well for a 'bumbling fool' who permitted himself to be misled. ( A little sarcasm here.)

Misjudge and underestimate this President at your own peril.

[RightOnline]

" The American people will not tolerate incompetence."

You CAN'T be serious. They reelected Bill Clinton, didn't they???