Mr. Scowcroft appeared at the New America Foundation with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, who declared the Iraq war a moral, political and military failure. If we can't send 500,000 troops, spend $500 billion and agree to resume the draft, then the conflict should be 'terminated,' he said, adding that far from the Jeffersonian democracy Mr. Bush extols, the most we can hope for is a Shiite-controlled theocracy.
The Iraqi election that was meant to be the solution to the problem - like the installation of a new Iraqi government and the transfer of sovereignty and all the other steps that were supposed to make things better - may actually be making things worse. The election is going to expand the control of the Shiite theocrats, even beyond what their numbers would entitle them to have, because of the way the Bush team has set it up and the danger that if you're a Sunni, the vote you cast may be your last.
In the entire history of the United States, has any president made a greater mistake? No, not the invasion of Iraq. Bushe's mistakes are the people he trusts, his rejection of contrary council, and a fundamental belief that his will is somehow favored by God. It is those things that led to the failure to secure the occupation, and now has made "winning" extraordinarily unlikely.
My only consolation is that Kerry would have had the same choice. Either admit defeat, or renew the draft.
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