You are absolutely correct. In fact, I think that was the original plan. But the Iraqi army didn’t surrender so much as disintegrate: there was no one left to pickup the pieces, although we could have quickly done so by paying off the right Iraqi army officers. If we had done so, Iraq would be like Egypt, minus a semi-autonomous Kurdish area.
Kurdistan would have been the wild card. Anyway, not our problem.
Bush 41 was smarter. He had more experience in the area. CIA. Former VP.
I wonder why didn't he do more to advise his son during the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.
Bremer was the worst guy possible for the role.