A few things come together here. First, the complexity of the playing field that we've decided to enter. That in itself is unremarkable, beyond the fact that this administration's gross incompetence is really central to the hash that we've made of the region. As Josh Marshall points out, that incompetence is not a by-product of the disaster, it's actually central to the entire strange and tragic journey.
The corruption and ineptitude aren't unfortunate add-ons to the effort. They're at the heart of it. It's a stain like original sin. And the same goes for the democratizing element of the mission. Even among critics of the war, it's often accepted as granted that a key aim of this effort was democratization -- only that it was botched, like so much else, or that the aim of democracy, in a crunch, plays second fiddle to other priorities. Not true. The key architects of the policy don't believe in democracy or the rule of law. The whole invasion was based on contrary principles. And the aim can't be achieved because those anti-democratic principles are written into the DNA of the occupation, even as secondary figures have and continue to labor to build democracy in the country.
They didn't understand, they didn't want to understand, they brooked no criticism, and had no time for nuance. They swallowed the idiocy of Bill Kristol's vision, which at this point has been proven to be as simple-minded and flawed a plan as anyone could imagine.
Why do we think that this same group will be able to extricate us from this? Dick Cheney, Elliot Abrams, and Prince Bandar?? You couldn't even find a bookie that would take that bet...
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