DenisHorgan.com

With far less tragic consequences, certainly, George Bush’s disastrous War on Iraq and Hillary Clinton’s disastrous battle for the presidency have chilling similarities.

Each was launched with what might seem an arrogance and hubris that seemed rooted in overconfidence,  fantasizing some mad inevitability of success when history is a much tougher place than the pipe dreamers realize. Failure was not an option but became a reality but they did not prepare for it.

Each underestimated the opposition, with sad results. Drunk with their own self-image and swagger, they did not prepare for opponents who would dance around them, rewrite the rules, find support and resources beyond the traditional Big Power circles. They did not fathom that a new stragtegy was necessary because they were too captured with the rightness of their own place.

Bush’s bloody war stumbles on looking for an end because they had no plan on what to do when the initial battles ended. Clinton’s campaign lurches along towards conclusion, while the world no longer pays much attention — the campaign having effectively ended long ago. Clinton merely wastes money and time, bitterly seeking to destroy the party village to “save” it; Bush kills people.

Each actually believed their own miscalulations, manipulations and lies and listened to fawning courtiers alone. The truth that the battles were not going well do not arrive home to the principals. Old tactics and strategies were brought to new battlefields.

Each changed the mission, the rationale, the direction as one approach after another failed. With lives at stake, Bush slithered the intent for his war from topic to tiopic: Saddam, terrorism, democracy, Iran, whatever would hold on to a few of his dwindling supporters. Clinton transmuted herself hourly from The Sure Thing, The Underdog, The Wise Expert, The Expert Hater,  The Iron Lady, The Sensitive Weeper, The Steady 3 a.m. Rock, The last call Denizen of Moe’s Place, The Pioneer, The Throwback, The Candidate of All the People, The Candidate of the ”Good People” (whites) only. Etc.

George Bush the Father worried about “mission creep” in Iraq during his own successful war there. His son changed missions weekly, and weakly.

Senator Clinton and President Bush faulted their critics, the media, anyone with a different view while allying with unsavory sorts and unsavory tactics what, ultimately harmed them more than helped. Each imagined a “surge” of more fighting and cost would somehow mask the truth that the core effort had flopped so badly, beyond recall.

The world changes. Those not ready for it get left behind, and in some events, causing great harm in the dismal process.