Oh man I'm having a blast reading this.
I agree we needed better leadership during 9/11 and there was none to be found at the highest levels of government. I mean that's why elections are so close. There's no common leader to unite us all in our differences. We also had bad leaders in the CIA and they can't be trusted for any kind of intelligence these days. We also had bad infrastructure in place in our government agencies long before the Bush/Gore elections. It's hard to give politicians and bureaucrats the benefit of the doubt even in times of crisis. I'd have to say as charismatic as Bush is compared to Gore or Kerry, he really comes off as a laughing stock. You know, like the dumbass everyone makes fun of or the guy that keeps making mistakes after people said, "we told you so!"
The ex generals and current mid level officers in the military were telling the guys higher up in the chain of command that we need more troops on the ground. We can invade a country like Iraq with small number of troops, but the occupation force has to be larger or casualties after the invasion will get worse, the fighting will get worse, and we'll create more enemies as fence sitters get caught up in the crossfire.
Guys like former Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki and other Army/Marine officers like him were saying the troop strength level needed to be done ASAP after a successful invasion, if the politicians were to give them no choice but to invade early because of standing orders. But, I guess in the military and in the government, the guys who get into the highest positions of power and make all the decisions for us might be usurpers, asskissers, perveyors of cronyism, nepotists, influence peddlers and what not. It's a shame that there aren't leaders with great vision, preparedness, talent, and a mindset to weigh all the variables, in power right now and recognized through talent rather than pure relationships.
It totally screws us over because being the proud Americans like we are after being attacked by a foreign enemy, we are stuck between feelings of jingoism as well as the aporetic thoughts about our government's motive to go to war on sketchy intel. I mean it's not uncommon for anyone to develop a cynical disposition towards government after what happened in recent years and given what little we do know now. Maybe any WOMD are in Syria, but we can't tell because information sources are unreliable and we 're fighting the wrong kind of war if we're trying to fight terrorism as a whole. We have to win it with strong intel before we send troops there otherwise we cap out our resources and our resolve becomes weaker. I mean we still have to avenge 9/11, not create more terrorists in other nations. Iraq, could one day be peaceful because of us, who knows? But we are losing momentum it seems, and we just screwed up the balance of power in the middle east. Especially when it comes to Iran.
