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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elsewhere who wrote (130384)	4/29/2004 2:16:28 AM
From: kumar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

conduct a war successfully. Could someone please define for me what a "successful war" is ? cheers, kumar PS: now am relocated to Australia - very different perspective around here.

To: Elsewhere who wrote (130384)	4/29/2004 10:29:01 AM
From: carranza2	Respond to of 281500

Only because he underestimated the willingness of Pres. Bush to go against established military and political guidelines how to conduct a war successfully. Major combat operations until the fall of Baghdad were conducted in a very efficient manner. A campaign that many thought would take months took weeks. Hindsight supports the notion that the Administration's plans were indeed well-thought out as respects this phase of the war. On this specific point, Carl was dead wrong. In this forum, where there are as many opinions as there are posters, and sometimes more-vbg-, someone is going to hit the prognostication lottery. No one here has done so consistently, partly because war invokes The Law Of Unintended and Unforeseeable Consequences in a huge way, a point all after-the-fact critics need to remember. The proper scope of inquiry is whether the broad goals of the campaign were met. As I see them, they were (1) get rid of Saddam, a goal which was achieved and (2) institute democracy in Iraq, a goal on which the Administration's efforts cannot yet be properly assessed. I think an appropriate after-the-fact analysis on the latter goal can take place in about 12 to 18 months. We can debate endlessly the issues of whether the goals were appropriate and whether the methods used to achieve them were wise. Whether they have been achieved, in my view, is an issue that can be objectively analyzed. We can debate means and methods, costs/ benefits, etc., 'til the cows come home.