COL Gene,

For me the "oh shit" point when I realized that any military action in Iraq was going to be directed by incompetent ass-clowns who have read too much Tom Clancy came before the invasion had even begun. If you'll harken back to Feb 2003, the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General Eric Shinseki publicly stated that the post-invasion force Rumsfeld was planning for was way too small. He said that after the "war" was over, occupation forces would neet to be kept at

"something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We're talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that's fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so it takes a significant ground- force presence to maintain a safe and secure environment, to ensure that people are fed, that water is distributed, all the normal responsibilities that go along with administering a situation like this"

Now in a sane world the administration would have listened to the commander of the entire fricking army and said "hey, maybe the guy's right!". Instead, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz completely crucified Shinseki, called his estimates "wildly off the mark" and said ridiculous things like within six months of post-hostilities there would only be 30 thousand or so US servicemen in a few big bases in country. Oh yeah, Iraqi oil revenue was gonna pay for the whole thing too right? 800 billion dollars later..... anyway. They even forced Shinseki to retire 10 months early so that they could put a general more willing to say yes to their plans (We wouldn't want good military strategy to get in the way of political agendas now, would we!)

The truth behind this war is that the military decisions have not been made by the military, but by members and appointees of the administration pursuing their own agendas- namely Rumsfeld while he was still in office, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and Paul Bremer, may they all burn in hell for what they've done. The fact that the entire war is being run from a bureaucrats desk in Washington and not the general's CP (which is how it should be) couldn't be made more evident than the revolving door of theatre commanders. Why have there been so many different generals moved in and out theatre as " the man running the show"? Because after awhile, each one has seen that they don't really have the control necessary for a field commander to do their job, and will only allow so much smoke to be blown up their ass by the SECdef and the POTUS and his tough guy posturing in front of the cameras before they say "fuck it, find someone else to be your puppet". Petraeus is the man in charge right now, and to his credit he's a tough, smart bastard. Let's see how long he plays the game of professional yes man before he too sees the losing hand the administration has dealt him.