Bush's Iraq Mess

With the start of a new year and only two years left to have any kind of impact on his legacy, George Bush might want to thoroughly consider why Iraq is such a mess on his watch. The reason? Throughout his life Bush has relied on friends to fix his many mistakes or help him be successful.

In Iraq Bush was relying on the military to clean-up his mess however initially he wasn't willing to have an adequate number of troops to make the situation work. In addition, in Afghanistan he took a situation that initially was successful into a situation that is deteriorating.

None of this should be a surprise to anyone. One only has to look at Bush's past to guess that Iraq would turn into a mess. Time after time Bush has made a mess out of things (dodging the draft, not having to take military medical tests, his oil companies, the 2000 election) yet was bailed by friends of the family.

However in Iraq, there are no family fixers available to end the civil war. James Baker was called in to help Bush, by way of the Iraq Study Group (ISG), to try to find a way to get the US unstuck from Iraq, but Bush has basically said he will ignore the report.

Baker, along with former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, probably figured their service on the ISG was in penance for their role in putting Bush in the White House in the first place. One has to wonder how many sleepless nights each had considering their roles in deciding the results.

While both may have figured service on the ISG would cover up for their involvement in the election, this time, as they say about Humpty Dumpty,

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.