[Leaning Right]

> We did it right in Germany and Japan... <

I suspect that worked only because Germany and Japan were homogeneous nations. Iraq is a fake country made up of three groups that distrust and hate each other.

Iraq should have been broken up into three separate nations, much like how the Astro-Hungarian Empire was broken up after WW I. It was Bush II’s error (one of many) that he did not do that.

[Col Frank Slade]

Thanks to GWB for bringing democracy to Iraq..

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Agreed. The Kurds in the north and the Shia in the south could have made a go of it as independent nations with their oil reserves.

I think the main problem was that the Sunnis in the center had nothing to finance a nation. I guess they could have been the ones to build a pipeline and charge fees, or they could have done something like Dubai, but I'm thinking the neocons didn't have anything to offer the Sunnis so they felt they had to keep the fake nation whole.