Who do you think is responsible for our failure in Iraq?

In my opinion, we didn't fail. The war itself was flawed from the beginning. Success was never clear, and there was no clear end state, much like Vietnam. When we bombed Japan, did we wallow in it, trying to decide how to fix the damage? No. We had a mission. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the mission stopped being war as soon as we worried about the "hearts and minds". Stabilizing an entire region is a far more detailed mission, but not a war.

This is a horribly complicated question with no good answer. 100 years of geopolitics lay behind the power shift with thousands underlying the sectarian violence. But I put a lot of blame for this at the feet of the current administration. By withdrawing troops while removing and supporting the removal of the strawmen dictators the west had put in that stabilized the region. The al Qaida in Iraq was bad enough but when we started financing Isis in Syria and running guns through Libya to them, we secured chaos in Iraq.

I don't think it was a failure... The Powers That Be got exactly what they wanted out of it.

The question needs to be worded better. The way it is currently worded evokes an immediate emotional response with people. I know of nothing that the US Military was tasked to do that was a failure. Now, at the Political/Strategic level, there were many decisions/ Policies that history has shown us were wrong and ended up not working as planned/envisioned.

But, instead of wasting our time trying to figure out/ debate "who's fault it is", we should be focused on "how are we going to fix it", because it has to be fixed! Who is responsible to fix it today is the current leadership (USA, Iraq, NATO, and whoever else has interests in the area).

"One day I was walking around and saw something wrong, and I thought 'Someone' needs to fix this. Then I realized I was 'Someone'!"

The failure is on the corrupt Iraqi politicians, not on the American military or Presidents Clinton, Bush, or Obama. I disagreed with the strategic decision to invade in 2003 by GWB, but regardless of that our military performed very well tactically and stabilized that state prior to our withdrawal.

Nobody (Obama, Iraqis, or ordinary Americans) wanted us to stay by the time that the Bush administration had ended and Obama had taken office. Theoretically, we could have engaged in nation-building and training/CT operations, but I doubt that our economy could've sustained that long term even if the political will was there.

A lot of good Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines died trying to stabilize Iraq, so no one should blame our military. The civilian leadership on the other hand is very much responsible. Starting with the Iraqi government that the US helped establish, they wanted us out of their country. They apparently had very little idea that this sort of thing could happen, and certainly without our presence it did. It's almost amusing to watch the current spin from the administration trying to dance away from taking responsibility. Once again, it is "Bush's fault." Some of it is, but look who has been "spiking the football" to use an overused sports analogy. Over the last six years (coincidental with the administration) we have seen the results of an apologetic foreign policy that has resulted in a continuing Arab Spring, persecution of Christians, and the rise of radical Islam. The self-gratification of proclaiming "I got us out of Iraq; I got Osama Bin Laden; Al Qaeda is decimated; ISIS is the JV, etc......" the list goes on, was constantly drilled by the administration and a media that no longer is there to check and balance what the administration says and does. Mrs. Clinton pointing the finger at the President is as laughable as his inaction. She was at the helm of foreign policy while it burned itself beyond recognition. The result has been disastrous: Four dead Americans in Benghazi; a complete reversal of compassion for a Palestinian state that continues to terrorize Israel, without any help from the US, and numerous other events that do nothing but raise eyebrows. All we are apparently doing is setting up for the next great battle that we will inevitably be sucked into without any help from the useless UN. We are the world's police force whether we choose to admit it or not. We are the only country that unselfishly commits our resources to other countries for not only defeating aggression, but Americans as a people give more in monetary and human assistance for disaster relief. I am proud to be an American, but the longer we sit back on vacation while the world goes to hell in a hand-basket tells me that we are being set up for a mega-battle for world freedom. Isolationists will tell us not to get involved. That’s arrogant and selfish, considering how we got involved because of 9-11.

Cpt Johathan,

In my honest opinion, failure in Iraq was not our military but looking at the soft power in the diplomatic arena.

America's diplomatic relationships has been built on a military power, agriculture, education and technology, while smaller countries who have survived thousands of years relying on lesser amounts and other resources for a more meaningful and sustainable diplomatic impact.

America has one of the greatest military powers on the planet modern man has ever seen, but has local, regional, and global challenges in diplomacy. US Embassies and Consulates are like palaces, huge and small town Western and dominate American culture, representing a strong presence from the West.

If our presence in the region is so huge, why isn't America's diplomatic story in Iraq not mainstream media? It is possible that there is none. It is also possible that American diplomacy efforts are hidden from the American people and the world, for what ever reason. Whose to blame?

If there is blame, we must blame our inadequacies in our diplomatic relationships. Blame, as much as there is, the solution set would be to envision realistic resolve with great promise in our young country's diplomacy in action.

Thank you for your service.

The Iraqi government is responsible for the state of affairs. They were left with a good product: A country basically built by the US with US dollars, and an entire infrastructure that needed only to be maintained to remain fully functional.

They failed to manage their own country.

An over-simplified analogy: I cleaned my 6 year old son's disaster of a bedroom this weekend. This morning, it was back to disaster status. I told him he would have to clean up the mess this time, and he complained "but its too messy, i cant clean it all by myself". My response: " I already cleaned it up once, all you have to do is take care of it".

Iraq in a nutshell.

All of the above. Iraqi government; current and past presidents and cowardly general and flag officers who would not stand up for what was the right thing to do, only the politically correct thing to do.

1. The fact that the US are in Iraq in the first place
2. The fact that there was no discernable long term plan for a feasible exit strategy from the begining
3. The Iraq governments’ infighting, graft, and general disorganization
4. The clan structure and the inability for the US (under Bush) to see and understand the internal dynamics of the Iraq people
5. Fighting a war by proxy with under paid, ill-trained, ill-disciplined Iraqi troops
6. Making the same mistakes over and over again due to a lack of understanding by US troops on the ground on the Iraqi clan structure and thinking that the Iraqi people would all welcome the US (FYI, This is the fault of the senior officers and political string pullers and not the fault of the general ground troops)