neo-neocon on Planning for the Iraq War and Aftermath (part II): "I guess I'm a child of the Vietnam era after all, because to me this looks so much better in comparison that I cannot help but be cautiously optimistic. Some will say I'm not hard enough on the administration, and that my expectations were ridiculously low to begin with. But I would answer them by saying that I consider myself to be a realist."

I, too, think it's much, much better than Vietnam.

The defeat of Saddam's military was a cakewalk -- except Saddam's army never surrendered. They just took off their uniforms, while many of them kept fighting secretly.

But the Saddam strategy seems brilliantly simple: fight and run away, and live to fight another day. Till the day that the Americans go.

Had Kerry been elected, Saddam might have found himself in the custody of terrorist friends.

Finally, any with friends who claim Iraq is a mess should be challenged, what would a non-mess look like? How many dead? How many elections? and then, where is the example?


Bush/ Bremer failures: failure to use ration-cards to help elect local mayors/ city councils, and give these elected folks more budget/ power.
Failure to set up an Oil-Trust for Iraqis, based on ration-cards and voter registrations; with a requirement to vote to get the cash afterwards.