Every one is occupied nowadays with asking Bush and his people about their Exit stragey from Iraq. Every pundit and so-called expert blame him and his policy makers of being negligent in not have prepared and still not have an exit strategy for the ill-conceived unjustified war. They reason that at least Bush should have had a way out of the miss he is getting us in. They blame him even more about this shortcoming after Powel's warnings according to Woodward's book.
it was reported that Powel warned Bush by saying that the Pottery Barn Rule "if you break it you own it" applies.
The problem with that warning, and the blame, is that it is not the Pottery Barn Rule that applies, it is the House of Cards Rule:"if you touch it, it collapses over you and you can't get out"
There exists no exit strategy from Iraq. Once we touched it, it collapsed on top of us. Iraq always does that.
It did that to Ali, the Fourth Khalifat in the first century of Islam, when he tried to get them to support him against the rebellion against him. That is how the Shea' sect of Islam started. After the Iraqis' reneged on their promise to him for support and after they assassinated him and later his two sons, Hussain and Hassan, they felt guilty and started a sect in his name in the hope they might be repenting fron their treason. They also did that to the British during the 1920's and for every one of their own leaders including their king Faisal, the officer who overthrew him and the next one who overthrew that officer. That last one was overthrewn by Saddam.
The British knew all that, and knew real well that we will never be able to get out once we get in. The naive Bush, unfortunately was not smart enough to realize that Blair is dragging him, and us, to a deep hole. I guess that is the British way of response to out dominance over them. They don't want to stand up to us openly, like the French or the Germans, so they drag us to where we will put our own nose in the dirt .
In short we were fooled and God help us to get out of there with as little as possible of loss in souls and spirit. This will never happen, however, unless there is a change in our leadership and/or policies. Let's hope that we, the people, are smart enough to make sure that the needed change happens, and soon. It will never be soon enough.
SW