Sen. Jim Webb: Bush Was 'Reckless'

Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, who delivered the Democratic response to the President's State of the Union speech last night, made clear what he thought of Bush's responsibility for the invasion of Iraq and conduct of the war.

Webb put it this way:

The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable and predicted disarray that has followed.

Webb, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, also pointed out that the nation's leaders

owe [our soldiers] sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it.

This is powerful stuff—hard-headed and direct. Importantly, it fixes the blame for this elective war, its mismanagement, and its many costs exactly where they belong: at the White House, on the rapidly collapsing shoulders of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.