If we only knew then what we know today....

[tw]

In seeking a previous discussion, I stumbled on this; posted maybe 4 days after 'Shock and Awe'. Baghdad was still far from conquered.

Iraqis welcome coalition forces
Previously I had asked how, after war has ended, how should this war be settled. What should be the political settlement? What are the occupation plans for the next two to five years? This post reminds everyone that no one has posted a reply. Why? I suspect because no one has even given serious (more than passing) consideration to this question - even at the highest levels of government. What happens to Iraq after the war has ended should have been well established and defined already.

Of course such plans assume the population would widely welcome their liberators. We don't even know if that is true - and yet must to be planning for Iraq's future.

Today we know that no one was making those plans. Today we know that thousands of dead Americans, tens of thousands of wounded Americans, and who know how many with permanent disabilities have all resulted because George Jr's administration had one job - plan for the peace. There were almost no casualties until our leaders did not do their jobs. Now thousands died. Now hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died. Now millions are refugees. All because a mental midget's administration had no plans for the peace.

If some third world country had done this, we all would be in an uproar. But then who would have known such plans were required - other than an author 2500 years ago - and other than lurkers in the Cellar 4 years ago?

Of course, back then when this was posted, most all Americans disparaged such suggestions. 'Big dic' thinking was alive and popular.