The War in Iraq...

Here's an easy multiple-choice quiz for you:

What does Steve King think caused our failure in Iraq?

1. Going in with an inadequate number of troops – a third of the size of the force used in the 1991 Persian Gulf War – led to looting and inadequate security that persists to this day, hampering rebuilding efforts and efforts to form a government.
   
   
2. Going in with an inadequate world coalition, particularly lacking in troops from Muslim and Arab nations.
   
   
3. Going in based on “intelligence reports” written by Dick Cheney.
   
   
4. Incompetent leadership from Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, including the use of torture in Iraqi prisons, pictures of which repulsed even our strongest supports in the Mideast – both of them.
   
   
5. Too much criticism from war opponents and the media.

Drum roll please. If you picked number five, you win!

“If we all would have stood together, this war would've been over last year,” King said in 2004.

Yes, King believes it’s treasonous to criticize the president during wartime. He said in March 2003 that some war protestors were displaying “un-American values.” Yes, by exercising their First Amendment rights, these protestors were causing our defeat. Apparently, we are not even suppose to speak out even when the president misleads the nation into war.

The warmongers are still trying to link Iraq to September 11 and the War on Terror, even though the 911 Commission stated there was no connection. “Although there are those in our country that want to see us fail in the war on terror, every single mission we’ve set out to do in Iraq has been successful,” King states in one of his news releases on his government-funded website after the President’s 2006 State of the Union Address.

Every single mission has been successful? Riiight. Let’s all go over there on vacation this summer, since there’s so much peace, security and success. Bring the kids. Don’t forget the camera and suntan lotion.

King’s rant continues: “Four and a half years ago, the terrorists showed us that we can no longer subscribe to the idea that we’re protected by the oceans. If we allow the rhetoric to stand in our way of full completion of helping Iraq achieve their own independence, this war will be fought in our own schools, churches and stores.”

Yes, the Sunnis and the Shiites soon will be battling over the local Fareway. Basically, the Bush/King Doctrine is simple: Label anyone you want to attack a terrorist and have at it. Ignore reality. Sunnis have gone from running Iraq to being subjected to the rule of Shiites, but this is not fueling the insurgency in the Bush/King alternate reality. Good luck solving this political problem with a military solution.

King even thinks it’s too much to criticize any of our war leaders, including Rumsfeld.

“Attacking our leader of the War on Terror sends a deadly message to the insurgents,” King wrote in a column in 2004. “It sends the message to the Iraqi people that we don't believe in what we’re fighting for.”

No, Mr. King. It sends a message that we want a strategy to win the war on terror, rather than a cheap political strategy to stifle your critics. The patriotic ones are those with the courage to stand up against your bullying tactics and demand accountability for what is shaping up to be the worst foreign policy blunder in our nation’s history.

The misadventure in Iraq, in reality, shattered the world coalition to fight terrorism. It distracted us from the real war on terror. It served as a recruiting poster for Osama bin Laden, the real terrorist. And it made Iran the strongest power in the region.

But naturally, to King, these are just lies fed to us by the media. We are winning in Iraq, King keeps saying, hoping repetition will alter reality. Unfortunately, reality bites.