Victor Davis Hanson made the point, shortly after we took Baghdad, that we might have a problem because the campaign had been too successful. He said Western armies typically pacify countries they conquer by the sheer brutality of their style of war. The conquered country has no doubt they are utterly defeated.
But this war was so quick and almost painless to the Iraqis that they don't have that same sense of suffering and defeat, like the Japanese and Germans did post WW II.
Agree. In wars past, it was so horrible that the conquered people didn't want a repeat, so they forced change when the shooting stopped. In today's PC wars, we've removed that element. With the exception of a precious few, it's as if a war didn't even take place. They just looked up one day and there we were, policing their streets.
We also need to understand that the vast majority of people there hate our guts, far worse than they hated even Saddam. This was always the glaring flaw in the "liberation of Iraq" silliness. Yes, a small percentage will be glad, those who suffered directly at the hands of Saddam and his minions. But if a genuine, free election were held today, I'll bet a buck to a donut that they'd re-elect him in landslide if he were on the ballot.
MM