Why has Iraq gone so poorly?

Question

"We will in fact, be greeted as liberators... I think it will go relatively quickly... [in] weeks rather than months"
-Cheney, 2003
"It is unknowable how long that conflict will last..I doubt six months."
-Rumsfield, 2003
I don't pose these quotes not as a left-wing hitman but to point out how badly we have screwed up...I'd like to hear other people's perspective. Heres my view

Bush Admin.
-not enough troops to secure border
-war plan did not accurately reflect the predictions of experts, nor reflect history of intervention in middle east
-Poor oversight throughout (Abu Ghraib)
-Break up of Iraqi Army/Debathification

Provisional Authority (Post War Planning)
-Failure to emphasize basic needs for Iraqis: security, jobs, electricity, sanitation
-Over-emphasis on advanced ideas: i.e. national debit cards and flat taxes
-Using Saddam's palace as Central Command!

Military:
-Ignoring prisoner abuse
-Didn't remove poor commanders
-Submissive to poor civilian advice

Answer 1

It wasn't properly prepared, they didn't have a long term plan. they expected it to be an easy win-they didn't know how to fight this kind war. these terrorist are not easily found and they blend in with the civilians. this war was started on emotions(9/11) they didn't prepare the military for this.

Answer 2

How does this answer grab you. We started a war in a area where the residents have been fighting one another since the beginning of history and expected to work things out for them in a few months? There will never be peace in a region that has dictators as leaders. What we did was invade a country with the intention of liberating it from a dictator with no long term plan. By long term, I mean a thousand years. Peace comes from within a country, not from without. The residents have never known anything BUT living under a dictator. That sort of behavior isn't wiped away in a few months or even in a few years. We've gotten ourselves into a no win situation. If we leave, another dictator will take Saddam's place and we'll lose even more worldwide credibility and if we stay, our troops will continue to die.

Answer 3

AND DON"T FORGET.....4,380 Americans are murdered annually by illegal aliens. That's 21,900 since Sept. 11, 2001.


THE REAL PRISONER ABUSE: The story of nine Iraqis sent to Abu Ghraib prison on flimsy charges, tortured, mutilated and filmed for amusement. By Saddam Hussein. ! The nine men in question had their hands chopped off; now Americans are giving them new ones.
2,200 different [reconstruction] projects worth around US$2.5 billion were under way, with 18,000 already completed. Targets had been met with oil production, which was back to 2.3 million barrels a day, clean drinking water and power.
Iraqi crude oil sales since last year's U.S.-led invasion hit more than $9 billion... The Coalition Provisional Authority had deposited a total of $9.28 billion in its Development Fund for Iraq.
In a stunning upset victory, the Iraq national football team defeated Saudi Arabia tonight 3 to 1 to earn a trip to the 2004 Olympic Summer games in Athens." It's the first time in Iraq's history that Iraqi football team will compete in the Olympics. Better still, while the victory over Saudi Arabia was played at a stadium once used by Saddam as an outdoor torture chamber, Iraqi soccer player know that if they fail in the future they won't be tortured by Uday Hussein.
more than five million Iraqi students are back in school and more than 51 million new Ba'ath-free textbooks are in circulation." And Iraqi universities are experiencing a brain drain in reverse, as many of the thousands of academics forced into exile under Saddam are coming back to teach the next generation of students.

Charles Duelfer head of the Iraq Survey Group said report makes it plain that George W. Bush had good reason to go to war in Iraq and end the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Answer 4

Very simple. Poor planning and poor implementation every step of the way. Bush made it easy for Iraqis who otherwise would have supported us (and did at the beginning) to find reasons to hate us.

Even Iraqis who hate the idea of an Islamic State in Iraq have no problem with the idea of killing Americans now. We screwed their country up royally, and more people die every day than at any time under Mr. Hussein. They can't even get their water and electricity flowing after 4 years, much less their oil.

I can see why Iraqis feel it is their duty as good citizens to fight against US troops. We haven't done anything for them so far except make a bad situation much much worse.

Unfortunately, it might be worse to leave now for everyone, destabilizing the Middle East, and making people hate us more for screwing everything up and running away. I hate George Bush with a passion for his incompetency, but leaving is hardly an alternative now. He got us into this mess, but we can't leave yet. Not because of the stupid 'we're fighting them there so we don't fight them here' mentality that a lot of morons who don't really understand the situation always say.

We can't leave because:

a) Turkey will then invade Iraq to try and stop the Kurdish conflict.
b) Iran will become even more powerful and it will be easier for them to export terrorism and create nuclear weapons
c) Oil prices will go through the roof (much more than even now)
d) The Saudi government will have no other reason for our troops to be there, and the militancy within Saudi Arabia will grow in strength, possibly taking down the much hated Saud royal family in place of an administration that is Wahabbist like Osama bin Laden.
e) and many other reasons that go against U.S. national interests.

In short, we've screwed up, but leaving will make things much more difficult for us Americans.

Plus, no one will believe anything we say anymore.

Answer 5

Iraq has been politicized by the left as a thing that has "gone poorly", as you say. I think in the long run, the world will be a better place with a genocidal dictator gone. What has really been a surprise is the lack of the Iraqi people in their willingness to step up and take control of their own destiny.

Bush promised that "when the Iraqi's stand up, we will stand down." Well, they haven't. At least, not yet.

Everyone says that there is no plan for Iraq. True! The plan was that the Iraqis would take over and run things. Well, we overestimated them. They can't run anything yet. Puts us in a bit of a pickle.

Answer 6

There is this thing called the first amendment freedom of speech. The general population of the USA do not need to know how we are going to attack "thanks Geraldo Rivera". The reports that are sent back and the broadcasts of the people in America stating the war is bad and the president is evil, just feeds those that want to hurt OUR (that's right they are our men and women) solders. Let the military DO THEIR JOB, then bring them home. We keep talking about the children caught in the middle that they are innocent well the people on the hijacked planes and in the trade centers were military targets.

Answer 7

It never had a chance of going easily
Almost the same as that fiasco called Viet Nom
They are in a strange land, do not know the arena, are considered by many to be invaders.
Are fighting in areas with civilians and therefore cannot use as much force as would be needed
Have less and less support from the average American, and very little international support
Just another lose, lose, situation that the US government has gotten themselves into

Answer 8

Well, we were greeted as liberators. One of the problems from what I read is that the US didn't trust the Iraqi's that knew the situation well and wanted to help us. Most wanted to help, but with the distrust of them, on top of lack of protection for them, it lead to the US being on it's own. Basically, it was horrible intelligence and planning in the rebuilding of Iraq.

Answer 9

When you invade someone's country and take it away from them, for some strange reason they tend to resent it.

While I grant you some of the terrorists organizations have gotten into this, this war is basically a struggle by the Iraqi people to expel a foreign invader.

Answer 10

Bush blew it big time right after the initial occupation which
I think is exactly what he wanted. Iraq's oil output has gone
in the dirt while the price of crude has skyrocketed.

Who is getting rich and who is footing the bill.