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George Bush? An able Commander-in-Chief? Oh, please.

The disastrous military blunders that have happened on George Bush's watch could fill a book - in fact, they already have. But let's just run through a few of the most obvious, shall we?

1) Bush relied too much on local forces to do the job in Afghanistan, and then quickly changed his focus to Iraq. As a result, he let Osama Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora to safety in Pakistan. Today, the Taliban is coming back strong, threatening NATO efforts there with total failure.

2) Bush ignored seasoned intelligence analysts and the rest of the world to start an unprovoked invasion of Iraq, ostensibly to disarm Sadaam Hussein of WMDs that turned out not to exist. He went in without enough troops to stabilize the country, and with no real plan for a post-war Iraq. The result has been an unmitigated disaster for the U.S. and for the people of Iraq.

3) Despite repeated failure of military campaigns in Iraq, Bush has been completely unable to change his strategy there.

4) Not only has Bush not called on Americans to sacrifice to support this war, he refuses to even budget for it. He has relied instead on repeated "emergency funding measures," as if the fact that the war continues to cost billions of dollars a week is some kind of surprise.

5) Bush's military adventure in Iraq has stretched the U.S. military to its breaking point. Repeated redeployments have left troops exhausted and demoralized. Heavy reliance on National Guard units have resulted in an inability of the Guard to fully respond to natural disasters at home - Hurricane Katrina being only the most horrifying example. National revulsion against the war has led to record low enlistment rates.

6) Perhaps worst of all, this Commander-in-Chief cares nothing about the soldiers he commands. He has sent them to war with inadequate equipment, and often without the training they need. He has cut budgets for providing vets with medical care and other assistance when they return home. As a result we have the spectacle of returning vets wandering the streets homeless.

Is George Bush an able Commander-in-Chief? The question would be laughable if it weren't so tragically sad.

Learn more about this author, Scott Knickelbine.
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