Why did Bush ignore Clausewitz' warning, "not to take first step (into war) without considering the last."

Question

Republican Rep. Ike Skelton wrote and sent a letter Sept. 5th of 2002 asking Bush about the costs and duration of the occupation of Iraq and quoted the "Prussian military therorist Karl von Clausewutz who is very well know for the requirements in war before taking the first step, as quoted in the question, without considering the last step. Also asked in the same letter about the great philosopher of strategy , Sun Tzu, who observed, "To win victory is easy; to preserve its fruits, difficult." So did Bush think that he was smarter than these two great military thinking men or did he think it did not matter if they were correct? If the later is the case, then what did he really have in mind? Apparently he did not care how many American casualities there would be, or how much time it would take to get the job done. If the former is true then he was truly ignorant of war and/or totally dismissive of the outcome of the war and it's effect.

Answer 1

First of all, this is coming from a Canadian citizen, so I have the outsider's point of view on US politics. However, I am a student of military history, and I while my knowledge of von Clausewitz' work is a little fuzzy, I am very keen on Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Bush strikes me as being pretty much an arrogant bugger with the childish need to make his daddy proud. Even the smartest man on earth with that mentality wouldn't heed some of the greatest military minds in history.

His advisors, too, must have been on the incompetent side of the house if indeed they didn't consider those things. I would have thought at people in charge of US Department of Defence, or at the very least the Chief of Defence Staff, or whatever he's called State-side, would be familiar with most of the military texts, or at the very least the two who are the most studied to this day.

Also, considering the lobbyists, war profiteers, conflicts of interests and corruption involved, it would not be surprising that those with the knowledge kept it under their hats in order to accumulate more money.

So in the end, it is either incompetence, arrogance or greed, or a combination of all three that would have led to the current situation.

Answer 2

If you go back to the fall and winter of 2002 the President had to choose between the most likely worse case scenarios.

The first would be what if the US does nothing? Leave Saddam in control and see the sanctions get lifted allowing Saddam to pour cash into his WMD programs, increase his support of regional terrorism destabilizing Israel and region and share his WMD with the terrorist, not to mention continue the mass murder of the Kurds and Shiites once the no fly zones in the north and south were gone.

So what was the most likely worse case scenario if the US did invade? To start with the cost in terms of US Soldiers lives was expected to be over 3,000 during the invasion at the start of the ground war as reported on CNN back in 2003, billions in reconstruction aid and the likely-hood that Iraq would be split up into three separate ethnically divided governments/regions.

Bush and the Neocons sold us on the call to spread liberty, freedom and, democracy. That outcome was the best case scenario and seems unlikely to become a reality. But that does not change the facts that Saddam is gone. Although the Iraqi reconstruction, democratization and/or occupation has not been very successful it is still better then what Saddam might have been capable of if left in power.

At least so far assuming some thing or someone worse doesn't rise out of the ashes of Baghdad.

Answer 3

Who said he ingnored it he said we would be there until Iraq could defend itself and had a stable form of government. And as far as casualties this war has been very low in the numbers to US soldiers. No one is dismissive of the outcome of war only liberals like you seem to think it's ok to cut and run before the job is done. You think the Vietnamese appreciated being left in the kurch after the democratrs withdrew our troops and then refused to supply them with aid? No one ever said the war in Iraq would be done overnight or that it would be easy. It's just liberals who can't understand that Bush actually won two elections and can't get past their hatred of republicans and conservatives that have to bash everything he does. Clinton didn't help matters by the half assed measures he took when we were attacked numerous times during his watch but you never mention that do you?

Answer 4

Good point. I think his "advisors" lead him astray for personal gain. There was no need to rush into this war that's for sure.

Answer 5

people only listen to santa clausewutz when they want something.


Remember the damnocrats jumped on the same bandwagon! But as usual, no harsh words for them!!!

Answer 6

Castro's crimes against Humanity

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Free Cuba from What?
Fidel Castro's regime is guilty of numerous documentable crimes stretching from the jungles of Peru to the deserts of Ethiopia. Documented reports exist of Cuban troops in cahoots with the Ethiopian government denying food to starving Ethiopians because of their political ideology. In Latin America, Castro funded guerrilla groups throughout the hemisphere generating terror and fear for decades.

At home Castro's regime has created the most repressive police state apparatus in the Western Hemisphere. Cuba is an Orwellian nightmare set in the tropics with Big Brother sporting a beard and cigar. Cuba has refused to ratify any major international law enshrining fundamental human rights. It has refused to sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Castro formed Committees for the Defense of the Revolution(CDR) which operate on almost every block in Cuba. Spying on neighbors and reporting back to the regime. Negative reports can land one in jail. Talking to foreigners invites questioning into your loyalty to the regime. Large numbers of individuals are incarcerated in Castro's prisons for political crimes ranging from speaking against the regime to trying to leave the island.

In June 1991 at a meeting between Fidel Castro and several members of various communist organizations, it was agreed to set up the infamous Rapid Response Brigades. Their principle aim is to "defend the country, the Revolution and Socialism in all circumstances, by confronting and liquidating any sign of counter-revolution or crime." Trying to leave Cuba without government sanction is a criminal offense punishable by prison. Due to this Cubans are unable to build larger more seaworthy crafts, and resort to innertubes, and in some cases fiberglass cannisters in search of freedom.

The Castro regime's response to the AIDS crisis has been mandatory nation-wide testing with forced incarceration for anyone who tested positive for the HIV virus. In addition, Castro has had a long tradition of imprisoning homosexuals and transexuals as "undesirables." Imprisonment is often based on mere suspicion and rumor. Recently it was reported that young people in Cuba are purposely "shooting up" with HIV infected blood so that they can go to these camps to avoid forced labor.

In a letter dated 14 September 1992 that was smuggled out of the same prison by a group of political prisoners, it was reported that a number of prisoners with AIDS rioted on 19 August demanding better food and medical attention. Guards used rubber batons, wooden sticks, and other blunt instruments and an unknown number of prisoners were injured. Several of the AIDS sufferers were transferred to the maximum security area of the prison. Two months earlier a prisoner with AIDS sent to this area had his food quota cut in half and the diet reccomended by doctors withdrawn. The prisoner died three weeks later. The fate of the others is unknown.

Castro's achievements bear mentioning and we shall list them here. First, his regime has had the longest serving political prisoner in world history: over 28 years. Cuba, in 1959 was economically self sufficient, and did not have the tourist-Apartheid of today. Tourist-Apartheid is the situation in which Cuban citizens don't have equal access to certain beaches or restaurants that Tourists do. Reminiscent of the system of segregation of the South, or of Apartheid in South Africa these conditions have been labeled "tourist apartheid."

In forty years Fidel Castro took an island with pre-existing progressive healthcare and drove it into the ground. In 1959 Cuba had 337 hospitals in 1989 the number had decreased to 264. Increases in other areas of Cuban healthcare did not manifest themselves on a per capita basis. Disease in Cuba has steadily increased since 1959. Suicides in Cuba more than doubled from a 1,011 figure for 1970 to 2,220 in 1989.

Remarkable achievements in just the course of 40 years

Answer 7

Isn't that obvious how ignorant he was.