Wikipedia, in describing how the upscale home furnishings store entered the world of geopolitics, offers this background: “According to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, US Secretary of State Colin Powell cited the rule in the summer of 2002 when warning President George W. Bush of the consequences of military action in Iraq: ‘You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people,’ he told the president. ‘You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You'll own it all.’ Privately, Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called this the Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you own it.”
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know how the American effort in Iraq, in contrast to the effectiveness with which Saddam Hussein was ejected from power, was badly botched from the start.
The White House brushed off warnings about what would become Iraq’s descent into chaos following the initial invasion. It sent US troops into battle without proper equipment, and some veterans have received shoddy medical care after returning home. The conflict has seriously damaged America’s global standing, and, according to our own intelligence agencies, it has made worse the fight against terrorism. The ultimate cost of the war, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, is expected to be in the trillions. And while the surge has diminished violence in Iraq (at least to the level of 2006), the outlook for a more stable future for that country remains uncertain.
One suspects that if a Democrat were presiding over this misadventure, people would be calling for his head.
Yet although President Bush’s popularity has certainly suffered, he has largely evaded the responsibility of “owning” the mess in Iraq.
The situation defies easy solutions. Even some of those critical of the war are flummoxed about how reducing the US presence in Iraq will severely worsen a situation that our country set in motion. Bush, as he said again recently, feels that he will be vindicated by history.
Yet those who have suspected that Bush wanted to slough off his mess on his successor seem prescient.
As the New York Times reported Tuesday, “It now appears likely that any decisions on major reductions in American troops from Iraq will be left to the next president. That ensures that the question over what comes next will remain in the center of the presidential campaign through Election Day.”
So the Pottery Barn rule requires some explication: you can create a big, big mess on the global stage, and pretty much walk away without owning it.
Related:
Good Stuff, Bush's secret army, Iraq: Five years later and time to go, More 
- Good Stuff
News and exposés about the Iraq war have been draining us mosquito-style over the years.
- Bush's secret army
The 9/11 attacks provided a catalyst: an unprecedented justification to forge ahead with a radical agenda molded by a small cadre of neoconservative operatives.
- Iraq: Five years later and time to go
March 19 will mark the fifth anniversary of America’s war in Iraq.
- Victory at last
It may at first seem like hyperbole for Harvey Silverglate to call the Boumediene decision the most important of his lifetime. But it is important to acknowledge how deeply surreal and atavistic these cases have become.
- A tragicomedy of errors
It was not until after George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were narrowly re-elected that many Americans began to realize that the Iraq War represented a dangerous moment in American history.
- Sticking it to the man
In 1969, Harvard University students rallied to support the creation of a black-studies program and protest the Vietnam War, the presence of ROTC on campus, and the university’s expansion into surrounding communities.
- Is Iraq in a civil war or something indefinably worse?
The Today Show ’s Matt Lauer, as easy going a news guy as exists on television, nonetheless finds himself a catalyst of controversy for the second time in 18 months.
- Who’s the real Dem?
Here in Massachusetts, Congressman Stephen Lynch has a primary challenge from a guy named Phil Dunkelbarger.
- Presidency of the absurd
In the literature of absurdity, torture is never far away.
- Say it ain’t so, Cindy Sheehan
The best place to observe the masochistic tendencies of the American left these days is in San Francisco.
- Iraq: Five years later
Five years later, President George Bush and his minions were wrong about the need to fight in Iraq, wrong about the way to fight in Iraq, and wrong about what the war in Iraq would ultimately cost.
- Less
Topics:
This Just In
, Elections and Voting, Politics, U.S. Politics, More
, Elections and Voting, Politics, U.S. Politics, George W. Bush, Political Policy, International Relations, Diplomacy, War and Conflict, Saddam Hussein, U.S. Armed Forces Activities, Less
