"Bush campaign ads using team"

[kandrathe]

My take would be that they did not expect the Bathists to shed their uniforms and blend in to the population, only to emerge as an organized insurgency 30 days later. That seems to have been the Saddam tactic actually, distributing caches of weapons and materials to mount an attack once the invading infidels declared a victory. I also don't think they believed they would be in Baghdad so quickly, and that the organized resistance would have crumpled so easily. Once the organized Iraqi armies had disbanded, we were left with an overwhelming supply problem. Also, they had no clue that the Iraqi infrastructure was in such shambles. Saddam had bankrupt everything in order to maintain the status quo of his regal slendor. Once the infrastructure teams started getting in and exposing themselves, then the insurgency started going after the soft targets. Rather than take on the hard shell and the horns, they waited until the underbelly was exposed. I think the US was overly optimistic in believing the majority of administrative functions would just transfer over allegiance to the new bosses, when in fact every institution disappeared and had to be rebuilt from scratch. So, catastrophic in the sense that we planned on a best case scenario, and ended up with the worst case scenario.

"I don't think you can win it. But I think you can create the conditions that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world," Bush said on NBC.

As in, hoping the terrorists will one day decide to surrender and stop fighting. This is kind of like the war on drugs, or the war on poverty. It is realistic to expect that we can hold states accountable enough to not actively support or abet terrorists within their borders and to work in concert with other nations to prosecute and discourage terrorism. It is unrealistic to believe you can end extremism.

Kerry responded that the struggle was "absolutely" winnable and Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards said Bush's remark amounted to a concession of defeat in the war that terrorists launched in 2001. 

Ok, now who is being unrealistic and promising us the moon and stars.