Do you think the Bush Administration could've handled the Iraq War better?

Answer 1

Yes. He should left the Media in the Dark. It is the Terrorist
most effective weapon.

Answer 2

Sure. You can look back at any conflict and see where things could have been done better. Unfortunately, the reality is that war, and its aftermath, are by nature a serious of unanticipated events. Hopefully lessons have been learned that will help in the future, but adversaries also learn, thereby nullifying many of the changes made.

The real problem is going into a war with an attitude that it can be done cleanly and surgically. War is an ugly thing, and once the decision is made, it should be a fight to win completely. That hasn't been done since WWII, resulting in the messes of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and now Iraq.

Answer 3

The actual war, no. The police action that is the occupation, yes. The real fighting was over almost before it began with nearly unheard of low casualties. Trying to police the nation, a job that is not the military's main strength, could have been handled better with either more troops in general or more troops with a back ground in police work and peace keeping.

Answer 4

Prior to the onset of hostilities, the resident idiot had two conflicting opinions as to how to proceed. His secretary of state, Colin Powell, restated the Powell Doctrine once again: go in with overwhelming numbers and crush opposition before it can even get started. Under his plan, the U.S. would have gone in with 200,000 to 300,000 men, levelled everyone and everything, and the odds of a rebellion would have been greatly reduced. Instead, doofus followed the advice of his Secretary of Defense, a man with absolutely no shred of combat experience, Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld's position was almost psychotically optimistic in projecting that the war could be fought on the cheap with as few as 50,000 men, that we'd be greeted as liberators, and that peace and happiness would prevail for all in Iraq(a bit of hyperbole, but his analysis was no less extreme). Dub opted to follow goodbuddy, Rummy: the war was fought as cheaply as possible with the result being civil war, evergrowing resistance, and Iraq is now the number one training ground for everyone who wants to cause trouble for the U.S.

This war didn't need to be started; but, once engaged, it should have been pursued ruthlessly at the onset. People want to blame everyone else, including Dems and the media and liberals, for how the war is going, other than the one person who is absolutely responsible for poor decisionmaking: the President. He chose to listen to a bean-counter rather than follow the advice of the one combat veteran in his administration.

Answer 5

First of all,I totally agree with cyclops.The media is the biggest weapon our enemies have.The New York Times is like a terrorist organization in itself.With that said,I think every war that the US has ever been involved in could have been handled better.I support our President, but I think he has tried to keep everyone happy and that just isn't the way to handle a war.

Answer 6

As a conservative, I think so. I believe Bush and his administration tried to please the liberal left by attempting to fight a kinder gentler war. You cannot do that. You have to go in, do what you need to do and finish the job. You cannot sit and worry about civil and human rights issues of every move and lable certain touchey feely areas like Mosques and schools as off limits, thats just plain stupidity. Political correctness is hosing this war up, not Bush or the fact it happened.

Answer 7

It would have been better if it had never happened.
But given the stupidity and incompetance of Bush and his administtration, No. I just don't see how Bush's war could have been handled any better. Its what I expected. You'd be deceiving your self if you thought / think otherwise.

Answer 8

I think he could have, starting with the truth behind the cause.
If it was to get the oil out of Saddam Hussein's hands, fine.
If it was to pay back Saddam for insulting daddy Bush, then fine. But more honesty about WMD's would have been nice.
That started him off on the wrong foot. Hussein may have cleverly disguised his associations with terrorists, but I strongly suspect he cooperated and aided them.
But, Cyclops is right. They never should have embedded reporters with the troops. They should've slapped NDA's on retired military officers who spun their views as "consultants" for money.
How many died because the press revealed locations of troops on television?

Answer 9

Yeah...the Bush Administration should've kept us from going over there to begin with!

Answer 10

Talk about handling the IRAQ war . Bush created the war.

Answer 11

if they would have allowed the military to do their jobs and left his pea-brains out of it, it would have been a whole lot better.

i feel like we should have done to 'the people' what they did to their own. start with the women and children and the men would have no one with whom to procreate so the culture will die out on its own.
desperate times call for desperate measures and all if fair in love and war.