by Juan Cole
10.
Refusing to fire Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when his
incompetence and maliciousness became apparent in the growing guerrilla
war and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal.
9. Declining to
intervene in the collapsed economy or help put Iraqi state industries
back on a good footing, on the grounds that the "market" would
magically produce prosperity effortlessly.
8. Invading and
destroying the Sunni Arab city of Fallujah in November, 2004, thus
pushing the Sunni Arabs into the arms of the insurgency in protest and
ensuring that they would boycott the January, 2005, parliamentary
elections, a boycott that excluded them from power and from a
significant voice in crafting the new constitution, which they then
rejected.
7. Suddenly announcing that the US would "kill or
capture" young nationalist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in spring,
2004, throwing the country into massive turmoil for months.
6.
Replying to Baathist guerrilla provocations with harsh search and
destroy missions that humiliated and angered ever more Sunni Arab
clans, driving them to support or join the budding guerrilla movement.
5.
Putting vengeful Shiites in charge of a Debaathification Commission
that fired tens of thousands of mostly Sunni Arab state employees
simply for having belonged to the Baath Party, leaving large numbers of
Sunnis penniless and without hope of employment.
4. Dissolving the Iraqi Army in May, 2003, and sending 400,000 men home, unemployed, resentful and heavily armed.
3.
Allowing widespread looting after the fall of Saddam Hussein on April
9, 2003, on the grounds that "stuff happens," "democracy is messy," and
"how many vases can they have?"-- and thus signalling that there would
be no serious attempt to provide law and order in American Iraq.
2.
Plotting to install corrupt financier, notorious liar, and shady
operator Ahmad Chalabi as the soft dictator of Iraq, and refusing to
plan for a post-war administration of the country because that might
forestall Chalabi's coronation.
1. Invading Iraq.
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