[leftiesareloonie]

It just amazes me how different this is working from the way Bush sold this to begin with. It's a hard to sell this as a war of "liberation" to the Iraqi people if we are unwilling to let them participate in governing.

I love this quote from the article:

"In a postwar situation like this, if you start holding elections, the people who are rejectionists tend to win," Bremer said. "It's often the best-organized who win, and the best-organized right now are the former Baathists and to some extent the Islamists." Bremer was referring to members of Hussein's Baath Party and religiously oriented political leaders.

This is just what some warned about before the war. If we held elections, the bad guys would win. If we didn't hold elections, we'd look like occupiers rather than liberators.

I hope against hope that the Bushies have a real plan for getting us out of this in reasonably short order. So far, it looks like all the pre-war fantasies are being dashed against the hard rock of reality

[RJCogburn]

A mess. Poor planning, it would appear.

[Prodigal Son]

It just amazes me how different this is working from the way Bush sold this to begin with.

Jeez, man. Bush is not divine. He can't tell the future. As Rummy says "The future is unknowable". Bush stopped a war that had been going on for over 12 years. That's a pretty good accomplishment if you ask me. We'll get elections and democracy ironed out over there eventually. It might not happen soon enough to please Bush's detractors but it will happen (provided this is what the Iraqis really want- descent into an Islamic Fundie State isn't an option).

[RichardW]

This makes no sense at all. I'm beginning to worry about the competence of whoever is running this postwar administration.

[Tokhtamish]

Maybe the predictions of democratizing Iraq are colliding with the hard realities of a lawless, violent mafia culture on the ground.

Saddam Husseins do not emerge from vaccuums. Such men and such regimes are the products of the societies that created them. Maybe Baathist thuggery is simply Iraqi political culture writ large, as we are finding. There is no silent majority of Iraqi democrats.

For now, the task is simply restoring order and stopping the daily killing of American soldiers. No reconstruction can take place until this happens. This is the Diem-Syngman Rhee phase. If this means an iron fist approach and putting a colloborator infrastructure in place, so be it.

[concentric circles]

Hmmm...
The headline reads "occupation forces" when so many other terms are available including "liberation forces." The Washington Post is doing it's best to undermine the Bush administration and I would love to see it's efforts get less attention around here.

We just threw a major supporter of terrorism off his seat of power and the dust hasn't even settled. As the moderates awaken to the fact that they can control the destiny of their nation and that the price of freedom is blood and sweat then they will start to take on the dirty work of running their own country.

There is a long line of hand wringing, nervous Nellys looking for every opportunity to point the finger of failure at this administration. It would serve them well to consider that their freedom to speak out in judgement was purchased by the blood sacrifice of people with a vision of a better world.

[MEGoody]

"So far, it looks like all the pre-war fantasies are being dashed against the hard rock of reality."

Yes, the fantasies of those who thought this would all be over in a couple of months. Anyone with common sense would understand that setting up a government doesn't happen that quickly, particularly with the other issues being dealt with, e.g. hostile forces coming over the borders to incite trouble, attempting to restore basic services and searching for WMD.

The citizens of this country are like whiney little children demanding instant gratification and TV movie-like resolution to problems.

[y2k_free_radical]

Better to hold off than allow ISLAMIC MILITANTS,BAATHISTS to win and then be accused ofnot responding to a legally elected government

[NestorMakhno]

It's going the way I predicted all along. It's Santo Domingo ca. 1914 all over again. The natives will rise, with "banditos in the hills" chased by Marines, and nationalist outcries in the cities. And, in the end, the US will walk out, leaving little behind except bad memories and a grindstone of resentment.