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Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
"Worst" is subjective. Viewed long term, the goal of keeping control of the world's second largest oil reserves (save those the Russians just claimed under a polar ice cap) is a not a bad intention at all.
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I don't get the idea of trying to "control" foreign oil reserves. Oil is a commodity. Its price is dictated by supply and demand. If you own it, you make some money, but it's not like we expropriated Iraq's oil reserves to pay for the costs of liberating them. Now, that would have been some genius.
[eta: It's a different sort of problem if a country can hold the world economy hostage by threatening to disrupt oil supplies -- for example, if somehow other Persian Gulf countries were to become weaker or subject to Iranian influence, leaving Iran in a dominant position in the region (but fortunately Iraq has also been the counter-balance to Iran).]
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If the goal is creating something that can never be undone, and a situation where any Democrat pulling troops out en masse would make the mess multiples worse, guaranteeing a quick reversal of public opinion and a Republican political resurgence, Cheney's been more than competent.
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Cheney is incredibly gifted as a Washington player, perhaps unrivalled. He knows how to make things happen and get his way in a city where everything is a zero-sum game. It's really remarkable.
OTOH, he has a reverse Midas touch when you take a public policy perspective. In the real world, his initiatives turn to shit. Fortunately for him, inside the Beltway that doesn't really matter. The Washington press respects power and clout, and is fairly indifferent to how government policy effects the world. Even a hurricane flooding a major city, say, penetrates their little world for only so long.
