Criticizing the Bush Adminstration
In Iraq, apparently a police academy building was so poorly built that it has to be tore down and rebuilt. Most annoying about this is that this building was constructed by the corp of engineeers. Juan Cole from Baloon Juice has this to say:
Such is life. This story highlights what is so frustrating about having to live with this decision- the construction of a viable Iraqi police force, not based on sectarian rivalries and long-festering hatreds and with a motivation that goes beyond settling Hussein-era scores is one of the most important things that needs to be done in the reconstruction. I know that, you know that, and the administration knows it. You would think we would approach the situation with a degree of seriousness and with a fully committed desire to succeed. You would think, at the very least, the Police Acadamy would have a solid PHYSICAL foundation.
If you really want to criticize the Bush administration I think this is the way to go. Or I should say this kind of criticism really appeals to me. I took it for granted that reforming Iraq was going to lead to a lot of death and destruction. That’s how things work when you forcibly make the benefactor’s of Saddam’s regime do things they don’t want to do. Plus it was obvious that this transition was going to attract terrorist like flies to a light bulb. Thus such violence, while unfortunate, I assumed was inevitable.
However, I had not anticipated the sheer incompetence of the administration in setting up a democracy in Iraq. Unlike Cole, I still would of been in favor of the war knowing what I know now because I believe that all people have a strong desire to live in a democracy and I think this is particularly true when the people of a country has lived under a brutal despot for many years. Such desire of the Iraq people, in conjunction with a US military that believes in what they are doing, practically guarantees that with enough time they will be able to get around every obstacle the administration incompetently drops in front of them. However, it would of been nice if the administration had given just a tad bit of thought about how one country transitions another country of 40 million from a despot to a democracy. That might of been somewhat prudent given the obvious partisan politics this war has been subjected to in this US.
I would vote for a Democrat that was unequivocal in his commitment to Iraq, but was highly critical of the Bush’s way of handling the transformation. The candidate must also provide tangible ways in which he would actively approach the transformation differently then the current administration. If such policies seemed more sound than Bush’s, which seems highly likely given this adminstrations incompetence, I would absolutely vote for that Democrat. Too bad the democrats are only interested in retreating from Iraq. Debate about how the transition is being executed would be much more helpful then whether we should cut and run.