Where Did We Go Wrong in Iraq?

Like most people, I was as surprised as anyone when we started marching into Iraq. I never really bought the threat of Sadaam Hussein to the USA. I definitely understood he was a threat to his own people. Honestly, anyone who cites Josef Stalin as a role model is probably not a good leader. I did believe that Al-Queda may have had a connection there. I mean, is that so far-fetched? But as far as an immediate threat to our country, I didn't think so. But if we were going to take care of this guy, his own people would be spared his dictatorship. So that's a good thing, either way. Unfortunately, we have botched the execution of what would probably have been a simpler task into a major mountain of problems. And this falls directly on the shoulders of the political leadership, not the soldiers on the ground. So let's have a look at some of the blunders we are currently digging ourselves out from under:

NOT ENOUGH BOOTS ON THE GROUND. From the time Colin Powell gave his input of 250,000 troops as the number needed to do this right, and Donald Rumsfeld started fighting him on it, we were in trouble. Another leader was asked later how many he thought he needed to succeed. Again, 250,000. He was fired. How can anyone listen to a man like Donald Rumsfeld in comparison to Colin Powell, a man who has been there, seen it all, done it before. Yet this is exactly what occured, and I completely understand Powell's resignation. He had already been duped into going in front of the UN to talk about 'yellowcake' and the direct nuclear threat from Iraq, a story that was later shown to be a total fabrication from an unreliable source. Now he was being asked to support a plan of action he know would not work, given the numbers these 'leaders' wanted to carry it out. The current surge is simply the administration doing what was asked in the first place, though the troop level is still short of the original. It is extremely unfortunate it wasn't done from day one. The success of the surge only goes to prove that Colin Powell was right in the first place.