America's Idiot Plot Syndrome

My latest at the Partial Observer. Excerpt:

Six years after 9-11, America is on the verge of bankruptcy, has lost her freedom, and has become the most hated country in the world. Meanwhile, bin Laden's Al Qaeda movement, once the extremist fringe of the extremist fringe of radical Sunni Islam, has exploded in numbers.

If we saw a fictional account of a Presidential Administration this incompetent, we would dismiss it as too unbelievable. Ever since we invaded Afghanistan as a response to 9/11, the American government has done exactly the wrong thing every step of the way, but one blunder sticks out. Only an idiot would have invaded Iraq, but an even bigger idiot would have neglected post-war occupation planning, and an even bigger idiot than that would have dismissed all the experienced Iraqi officials who would have had the knowledge and experience to rebuild the country. If we are living in a movie, it is suffering from Idiot Plot Syndrome.