It has been a common joke made about President George W. Bush. The man is dumb, they say. An idiot. A bumbler. Imbecile.



It is also the general perception that President Bush failed miserably in his diplomatic efforts prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. He should have been able to get the world on board, that line of thought goes.



These arguments both rely on the idea that not getting the world on board for Operation Iraqi Freedom was a failure on the part of Bush. He had claimed again and again that he would prefer to have the UN with him, even if he would do it with just a small "coalition of the willing" if necessary. So it seems he wanted to get the world united in this cause, but failed.
Bush did not fail in his diplomatic efforts regarding Iraq, he succeeded brilliantly in achieving his goal, and 2) the man is no dummy - in fact, far from it; President Bush is one of the most cunning, politically brilliant men to occupy the White House in decades.



AND, the whole idea of him being a dummy or a bumbler is just something he puts out there to serve a purpose.



All along it seemed that Bush was possibly inept diplomatically, and that's why the multinational coalition didn't form and UN resolutions failed. The reality is, that President Bush never wanted the support of corrupt France, Nazi Germany, Anti Semitic Russia, and the UN. In fact, he wanted to avoid having it at all costs.



Failure to get the UN resolution was not a failure for him but a success. As you saw him and Prime Minister Tony Blair stand side by side during the war, Blair would talk about getting the UN involved in rebuilding Iraq. President Bush, however, would stand right there beside him and make clear he didn't want the UN involved under any circumstances.