POLITICS - Fuel for the Fire

So this is the best that America can do? The justification for not having a post-war plan is the fact that the Bush Administration is too inept and ineffective, its pointless for them to even try to come up with a plan? And now, after the miserable failure of an occupation, our only goal is to not get killed and hope that we leave something that hopefully resembles a government?

How much lower can we set our national standards now? How can this even be close to acceptable, much less supported by a majority? Can't the Democrats come up with a message that says, "We can do better than this."?

1) Because of that legacy, we stink at social engineering. Our government couldn't even come up with a plan for postwar Iraq — thank goodness, too, because any "plan" hatched by technocrats in Washington would have been unfit for Iraqi reality. - David Brooks / NYTimes

2) Some in the administration "want to get Iraq right, and that group [needs] a longer time frame," said Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security advisor to former President George H.W. Bush. "At the other extreme, there are some whose goal is to get Iraq off the front pages by August."
[...]
Bremer's strategy, one U.S. official said, is to "just keep telling people, 'We're going to be gone by June 30 and although you are enthused about that idea, just think about what you're going to do on July 1.'
[...]
Said one person close to the process: "If we have something that vaguely looks like a government, and we don't have Americans dying every day, that would be a wild success."
- LA Times