Failures In The Reconstruction Process

Rhetorical Ploy

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Argumentative device whereby one attacks the catastrophic blunders of one's ally, despite having spent five years playing down their severity.

Ploy for those with their eyes on the prize, holding that one's policies cannot have failed because they were wildly unrealistic or contingent upon basic fallacies, but have been undermined by one's ally's failure to invade on a Tuesday instead.

Decent equivalent of "Communism has never worked because it has never been tried."

"The disorder in Iraq stems directly from failures in the reconstruction process. In retrospect, I admit that painting those Iraqi schools beige was a collossal mistake - had they been painted green from the outset, Iraq would be well on the way to becoming a stable democracy."

See also Terrorists Are Bad, Victory.