Remember, bush never went in with the intention of killing 200,000 Iraqis and 50,000 americans. Clinton tried limited missile strikes, they didn't work. they probably won't work for Obama either. just like Obama's original strategy of supporting air strikes on assad's forces didn't work. he is already responsible for the deaths of thousands and the displacement of thousands of others with his support of these multiple arab uprisings. 3 sovereign nations have already been thrown into turmoil with Obama's edging. If Obama is justified in his actions, bush was just as justified. you can't play it both ways and be right.
The Bush policy was regime change, which his father rejected in the Gulf War because he was advised that regime change would lead to terrible instability and a bloody civil war. The Bush policy was also for boots on the ground. Both these factors have much higher casualty rates than the Obama plan. So it's not quite accurate to say they are the same thing and have identical consequences, however unforeseen. On the other hand, Vietnam started with a very limited engagement, so I take your point (sort of) RE unintended consequences.
The fact that the Bush fabricated WMDS and the 9/11 link in order to pursue a policy that that his defense team created in the 90s makes me even more skeptical about trusting Washington when it comes to military engagements.
As a Lefty I'm allowed to oppose my leaders when it comes to things like war. The student Left actually lead the charge again LBJ, which costs him a second term. On the other hand, the average rightwing voter would never oppose a GOP president when it comes to war. When Bush announced the Iraq War, the majority of Republican voters became attack dogs on behalf of Washington - they attacked anybody who questioned Dear Leader. Indeed, critics of Bush's war were called anti-Americans and terrorist sympathizers.
When Republicans said we could turn an Iraqi civil war into a modern, western style democracy, I laughed.
I laughed because Republicans have always told us that Washington isn't competent enough to run a laundromat, yet somehow they tried to convince us that Washington bureaucrats could remake the Arab world in our democratic image. Republicans never questioned whether or not Washington had the power to save an Arab country. They never asked questions like the follwoing: what if our intervention makes things worse? What if it's not as easy and quick as dear leader promised? What if we unleash a bloody civil war and the Iraqi civilian death toll climbs
higher than it did under Hussein? Republicans don't know how to question their leaders because their party cultivates commitment to leaders rather than principals.
Most of my democratic friends think we don't have the ability to effectively help Syria, and they oppose Obama. If we were on the right, we would be completely outcast for opposing dear leader.