Undermanning the Occupation

Andrew Sullivan has this insightful quote from an emailer:

I think that part of the problem in Iraq stems from the Administration's fear that putting more soldiers in country would have made the case for going to war even more difficult. It was hard enough to sell the war on weak evidence of WMDs and Saddam's involvement with the attacks of 9-11. By under-estimating the resources necessary to succeed, they avoided facing their critics and having a plan for a post-war reconstruction. Their goal was to simply get rid of Saddam and hope for the best.

Sullivan himself sums up by saying

We're fighting with one hand tied behind our back - and Rumsfeld tied the knot. We can only hope that our amazing troops and the Iraqis' evident desire for a new future can somehow manage to wrestle victory from the incompetent, self-serving hands of their political masters.

Someone has to start demanding accountability from this administration for its collossal mishandling of the situation in Iraq. I'm just not holding my breath.