Ex-Iraqi Prime Minister Says Bush was "Utter Failure"

by Deb Cupples | Reuters reports:

"Former U.S.-installed Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has denounced the policies of President George W. Bush as an 'utter failure' that gave rise to the sectarian venom that ravaged his country....

"Allawi ruled Iraq for almost a year after U.S. occupation officials handed power to him in 2004 as prime minister of an interim government. He was selected by a council hand-picked by Washington after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

"'Yes, Bush's policies failed utterly,' said Allawi, describing the U.S. administration that once backed him. 'Utter failure. Failure of U.S. domestic and foreign policy, including fighting terrorism and economic policy....'" (Reuters)

Join the club, Mr. Allawi.  Most of us Americans similarly regard President Bush as a failure -- or worse.  Ten public-opinion polls reported in December show that between 61% and 72% of those surveyed outright disapprove of Mr. Bush's job performance.

Why?  I suspect that's because we've come to realize that Mr. Bush insisted on invading Iraq based on false rationalizations.  We've come to realize that Mr. Bush's policies contributed to our nation's  overwhelming economic crises, which will preoccupy us for many months to come.  We've come to realize that Mr. Bush's policies contributed to a host of other awful things: e.g., our nation's health care crisis, our nation's energy crisis, our nation's climate-related crisis.... 

We also watched Mr. Bush try to dismantle Social Security, one of our nation's few, successful public programs: the only reason he was stopped is that many Congress people actually want to get re-elected.  But I digress: I'll get back to the Iraq war.

Before Mr. Bush insisted on invading Iraq, our own intelligence community predicted that sectarian violence would explode in Iraq as a direct result of a U.S. invasion -- and that terrorists would have an easier time raising funds.  The Bush Administration simply ignored the then-classified report (which was declassified in May 2007).

Mr. Allawi had unpleasant words about the performance of current Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, too:

"Maliki's government was characterized by 'weak performance, erected upon political quotas, major government corruption and infiltrated state agencies,' he said. 'Four years passed ... and they can't build the police, army, national institutions.'"

"'Ending Saddam's regime was essential, but replacing the Saddam regime with extreme chaos was not right,' he said.

Here in America, we watched President Bush's policies fail on so many fronts, that Mr. Allawi's blunt criticism doesn't surprise most of us one bit.  Memeorandum has commentary.

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* Goodbye to 2008 -- and Good Riddance to an Era

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