Not surprised. Liberals think the world revolves around their emotional obsessions. If the Iraq war was the worst military blunder or worst planned etc, it justifies the obsessive emotions they feel ... and thats the bottom line. In fact it needs to be the worst ever ... whatever .. to justify their feelings.
In the real world, military operations are always badly planned and filled with blunders. A few examples:
The Sinking of Force Z Off Singapore
When Churchill thought that the Japanese would invade Malaya, he dispatched two of Britain’s mightiest warships, Repulse and Prince of Wales, to Singapore without any air cover. Within three days of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had sunk the pride of the Royal Navy on its ill-fated mission. This was reckoned by many to be Churchill’s biggest wartime blunder.
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Operation Cobra
As the Allied forces lay poised to break out of Normandy in July 1944, this ill-fated mission to bomb the Germans in close proximity to US troops failed when bad weather and bungled instructions to return to base resulted in Allied troops being bombed by their own planes!
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historytvdocumentaries.com
700 soldiers were killed in a training operation in preparation for D-Day:
This is the story of a terrible tragedy that befell American soldiers and sailors just before D-Day in 1944. A convoy of LSTs (Landing Ship Tanks) was making a practice invasion on Slapton Sands in England when it was attacked by German E-boats.
amazon.com
And the D-Day invasion was filled with blunders which cost a lot of lives:
While the U.S. First Infantry's invasion of Normandy was ultimately successful, the division suffered terrible casualties notoriously so even compared to battles in the 55 years since. Retired U.S. Army Major Adrian R. Lewis, assistant professor of history at the University of North Texas, combs primary source material for Omaha Beach: A Flawed Victory, and finds that most of the leaders on the ground opposed the plan, which was then imposed on them from higher up.
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Lewis strongly critizes Omar Bardley's conduct during the planning for Operation Overload. Bradley did not allow enough commandos or air strikes to destroy the German beach obstacles on Normandy Beach. Bradley also ignored General Pete Cortlett's advice that the pre-invasion bombardment should be longer than planned. The invasion was planned in the early morning which made the invasion force easy targets for the German defenders. Bradley refused to plan the landing to place at night because he thought that airpower would neutralize the German defenders. But the aircraft used to disable the German defenses were heavy bombers which were inaccurate rather than smaller tactical aircraft more suited for the task. To make matters worse Bradley placed newly trained soldiers in the first wave while the veterans were in reserve. I would highly reccomend this book to anyone interested in the often overlooked flaws of commanders such as Omar Bradley.
amazon.com
Here's how the Battle of Midway would talked about if Bush had been commander in chief:
If the Battle of Midway was reported according to today's reporting standards:
Midway Island Demolished. Yorktown, destroyer sunk.
Many US planes lost
June 7, 1942
The United States Navy suffered another blow in its attempt to stem the Japanese juggernaut ravaging the Pacific Ocean. Midway Island, perhaps the most vital U.S. outpost, was pummeled by Japanese Naval aviators. The defending U.S. forces, consisting primarily of antique Buffalo fighters, were competely wiped out while the Japanese attackers suffered few, if any, losses.
In a nearby naval confrontation, the Japanese successfully attacked the Yorktown which was later sunk by a Japanese submarine. A destroyer lashed to the Yorktown was also sunk.
American forces claim to have sunk four Japanese carriers and the cruiser Mogami but those claims were vehemently denied by the Emporer's spokeman.
The American carriers lost an entire squadron of torpedo planes when they failed to link up with fighter escorts. The dive bombers had fighter escort even though they weren't engaged by enemy fighters. The War Dept. refused to answer when asked why the fighters were assigned to the wrong attack groups. The Hornet lost a large number of planes when they couldn't locate the enemy task force. Despite this cavalcade of errors, Admirals Fletcher and Spruance have not been removed.
Code Broken
The failure at Midway is even more disheartening because the U.S. Navy knew the Japanese were coming. Secret documents provided to the NY Times showed that "Magic" intercepts showed the Japanese planned to attack Midway, which they called "AF".
Obsolete Equipment
Some critics blamed the failure at Midway on the use of obsolete aircraft. The inappropriately named Devastator torpedo planes proved no match for the Japanese fighters. Even the Avengers, its schedule replacements, were riddled with bullets and rendered unflyable. Secretary of War Stimson dodged the question saying simply: "You go to war with the Navy you have, not the Navy you want or would like to have". Critics immediately called for his resignation.
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