What went wrong in Iraq? Well, for one thing, the whole notion of trying to use military force to create political change was fatally flawed. Even so, there were specific conditions in Iraq that guaranteed the occupation's failure and contributed to making a bad idea into a worst-case scenario, and they can all, ultimately, be traced to the state of the Republican Party.
There were several factions within the Republican Party going into the invasion, each with its own goals and methods, and they were operating at cross-purposes. Each interfered with the goals of the others, and together they succeeded in transforming a brutal but stable dictatorship into a cesspool of chaos, violence, and civil war.
(details of the train wreck below the fold)
Read More