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The writer is correct that our failure in Iraq has, and will continue to, haunt us around the world. That is but one of many tragedies of an invasion that was grossly mismanaged from before it began.
Perhaps that will loom as the greatest tragedy, that the limits of American power have been laid bare for all to see. America enjoyed a certain mystique as the only superpower in the world, and that has been lost as a mighty nation bobbles and bumbles in a war that our leaders neither understood nor prepared us for.
The blame is not to be laid on those who are that are brave enough to face the fact that we lost, but on those that placed America in this lose/lose situation.
Good leaders have an ability to tap into the strength of the people, to cause a collective reach into the depths of resolve and toughness.
By that standard, George Bush failed as a leader. Try to find pre-war speeches by the president or Cabinet explaining how difficult this conflict might be, why it was so important, and why the struggle was a noble one. Look for the administration asking the American people to sacrifice for the greater good, to reach down and show the American spirit. Look for anything indicating that our leaders understood what they were getting us into, and prepared us accordingly.
You won't find any of that. You'll find some fear mongering that turned out to be false, tax cuts that we would not relinquish, volunteer soldiers to fight in proxy for us, absurdly low cost projections, borrowing from the Chinese so we could push the costs to our children, and a grand and absurd "Mission Accomplished" celebration in the bottom of the second inning.
Did the public turn? You bet it did. And the failure was not of the American people, but of the American leaders. Watching an administration lurch from crisis to crisis with no sense of what the hell it was doing was icing on the cake. But the lack of any foundation or resolve, which would only have come from leadership, is what doomed us from the beginning.
The Bush Administration prepared us for a quick, painless, virtually cost-free "victory." It cannot blame the people for expecting exactly what was promised.
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