I think that I am one of the few liberals who will agree that going into Iraq was needed. I think Saddam had weapons that he shouldn't have had. I think that we provided some of these weapons or at minimum were complacent in their production. Iraq was the enemy of Iran and we disliked Iran. It made sense (in our juvenile way of thinking) to make friends with the enemy of our enemy.

Far be it from me to agree with bhkad on anything, but he is dead-on on a few issues.

1. The use of ground forces were an absolute necessity.
2. We didn't understand fully the actions we needed to take and the repercussions of those actions.
3. We have a responsibility to prevent Iran from taking over Iraq.

I hold the POTUS accountable for several different things.

1. His inability to sell his actions to our allies. I think that building a coalition to go in and take care of business is superior to unilateral action.
2. His failure to maintain in-step relations with key allies in the region. We have allies in the region that the President could/should have developed a closer relationship with before invading. We could have learned much more about what we were getting into.
3. Mission Accomplished? Come on Mr. President. I understand that you want to maintain support for your war, but there is no sense in misleading the people. Our mission is still far from accomplished.

I think that the State Department has a role that is about getting along with others. While the President may support 'cowboy diplomacy', the grown-ups of the world rely on the State Department to advise on diplomatic relations. To expect the State Department to do a good job of selling the war is like asking the Fred Phelps to condone homosexuality. It's contrary to the nature of the organization.

Building a democracy in the Middle East seems to have been the desire of every Republican since 1980. While I might agree that it's a good idea on paper, reality is a much different thing. If we weren't so concerned with building a democracy, we could have been more focused on a stable government. If stability were our primary concern, we wouldn't be pushing democracy to a nation who has never had anything like it.

I think that the majority of the blame goes to the President and his Administration for their planning (or lack there of).