October 15th signaled another day for neoconservatives to declare, in their minds, a moral victory in this horrible display of leadership in the execution of the Iraq War. So while they break out the pom-poms, make their "freedom's on the march" speeches, and pepper everyone with recycled touchy, feely rhetoric to attempt and mask this debacle in the Middle East I'm going to throw cold water on their parade and remind everyone of a few things. We need to talk about enormous failures that have resulted in a pathetic attempt at installing, not birthing, a skewed form of democracy.

First, I was glad to see that the Sunni's did take part in the political process; however, they overwhelmingly rejected the Iraqi constitution. Despite that enormous rejection the constitution did pass, with all of its fallacies included. As a result, an Islamic Republic is born. The tension between ethnic, religious, and cultural sects is going to be absolutely incredible going forward, with many of the cleric leaders and former Baathist party members fueling the Bush administration created Iraqi insurgency already. They will not accept this constitution if they handedly rejected it to begin with. Iraq is already in the beginning stages of a Civil War; this referendum has likely only sped up the process of a full-fledged bloody division within this fledgling neoconservative democracy installation project.

Second, as General Wesley Clark clearly indicated this weekend, the administration has continuously failed to deliver a plan to sufficiently build an Iraqi military presence that minimizes American intervention in Iraqi security. This coupled with a backdoor draft policy of forced retention cycles for reservists, National Guardsman, and active military personnel and you have essentially created a Molotov cocktail waiting to explode. Mixing an apparent occupation force (US Military) with daily security of your occupants (Iraqi people), while the occupiers (US Military) are tired, confused, and under equipped to handle the scenarios unfolding on the ground, only serve to rapidly destabilize the situation Over There. Since our military is in such a condition, they are also unprepared to handle proper training of a force where trust is absent equally between parties already. Because this administration wears rose-colored glasses the window of opportunity has already closed to attempt to get this situation right. You can't fight war on the cheap and expect to win, and you can't break the Powell doctrine and ignore the warnings of General Shinseki not to deploy the least amount of boots on the ground as you possibly can. Brushing these facts aside is not an option, it has created the scenario we see unfolding before us today.

Third, the attempts at dialogue amongst Iraq's neighbors have been absolutely non-existent. And because of that, both Iran and Sudan are pouring jihadists into the insurgency. The failure to focus on diminishing these obvious results of war has had a detrimental effect on the political process in general. It also demonstrates the need to use overwhelming force to secure the nation you are responsible for now occupying. So in essence, this administration has killed two important points of nation building, something they were opposed to doing in 2000 to begin with. Avoiding these missteps would have moved our brave men and women much closer to returning home, and Iraqi's closer to some sort of stable government. We have neither occurring now.

Fourth, despite fevering attempts to pump up reconstruction efforts, they have essentially ceased or constrained to extremely isolated locations. Bridges that were repaired and reopened have been strategically destroyed again to slow insurgent traffic into many Iraqi cities, especially along the borders. Remind you of an old Vietnam War tactic, doesn't it? Billions of American taxpayer dollars in reconstruction money is now unaccounted for and congress turns a blind eye. The flow of oil President Bush, VP Cheney, Condi Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, and other talking heads who promised it would fund reconstruction has never occurred. Instead, you and I are footing the bill. Insurgents blow up government buildings, police stations, schools, and basic infrastructure such as electricity and water treatment plants faster then we can place the final touches on blueprint schemes. We can't afford to have soldiers doing this type of work anymore anyway; they are now needed to battle an insurgency that didn't exist prior to American interference in Iraq.

What we essentially have here students is a tango between taking one step forward and two steps backwards. The negatives far exceed any positives that any individual can wrestle out of the unfolding debacle in Iraq. The political process that unfolded over the weekend only served to demonstrate how quickly Iraq is falling into a bloody division amongst religious, ethnic, and culture sects throughout this oil rich country. It also showed that the American government must cease, and reexamine any future attempts to tango in nation building. More critically, it has demonstrated blatant incompetence, foresight, and arrogance on the part of the president in executing a delicate weapon such as war. Especially without apparent justification or evidence to do so. For now we need to put the pom-poms away and begin drafting a real strategy for success in Iraq that includes a strategic withdraw of American troops by the end of 2006. We're better off however sitting and waiting for hell to freeze over then for these arrogant leaders to admit any wrongdoing.