Hopeful Pessimism

If asked, I would say that I hope President Bush's plan succeeds, for the sake of our soldiers and our nation's standing in the international arena, but I'm skeptical.

However, my criticism does not go to the plan itself per se, but rather to the architect of the plan. He was given advice from independent sources, which he straight out ignored. He then devised his own plan, using what many experts (including, I'm certain, the ones he consulted when making the decision) have suggested is the absolute most we can afford to send over, with the story that this is all that will be necessary to secure Baghdad. He says that mistakes were made and they were his, yet he does not consider alternative suggestions, at least, not seriously. He then invites people to suggest other alternatives and proceeds to act as the judge of the suggestions, deeming all of them to be insufficient. If he admittedly has been unable to secure the country we invaded for reason he admits were mistaken (if not outright lies), then why the reluctance to listen to ANYONE else?

The conclusion I can come up with is that he wants this to be his defining success so badly (see: the Mission Accomplished speech) that he is unwilling to let the perception that he needed to be "rescued" from his occupation even appear to enter the fray. He is so obsessed with his legacy that he is willing to spread our resources to a breaking point on the mere hope that these extra bodies will succeed where we've been unable to before.

He had his opportunity to be remembered as one of the greats - we needed to finish the hunt for Bin Laden and eradicate Al Qaeda. We had the majority of the world on our side (even North Korea condemned the terrorist attacks), and had AQ and the Taliban on the ropes. But we didn't. We instead took our resources and diverted them into a mistake that has turned into at best a quagmire. The president has shown an inability to successfully lead this nation's military at time of war, and for the sake of our nation, our troops, and the president himself, he needs to lick his wounds and listen to some who might know better.