Man, you just don't understand. No one is ever an "expert" military tactician as no one knows everything about combat. It's akin to a practicing attorney or practicing physician(Without trying to insult servicemembers). There is no "Military Operations for Dummies" book. When the learning and training stops, we are all dead. There was no way to tell how much resistance we would face in the aftermath(and it is still minimal). I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican.....it just isn't going to happen. When you say Bush was wrong you basically say the military planners were wrong, military members that have been doing this longer than many people on this board have been alive. As a former Sergeant in the US Army, you don't realize how much of an insult this is, although I was never in any position to make decisions such as this....as no NCO is. Also, to compare this to Vietnam is an insult to Vietnam Veterans. I am pretty sure they would have loved to have the leadership we have today as too many lives were lost then due to politics. They were really never allowed to win. Can you not see who it actually is that is trying to politicize this operation? We are there. We are not leaving until the operation is complete and the Iraqis can govern themselves. There is no sense in bickering about it because, quite frankly, any dissention for purely political reasons here puts our troops in greater danger.

....and although you didn't say it, the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the carrier? Please. I pretty much figured it was a message to that actual carrier.