[GAsux]

I'm with Ror here. Having spent time in the region, as Im sure he has, I came to the personal conclusion that conflict on this scale was an inevitability, and not necessarily a bad thing. I honestly believe that given the amount of resources, manpower, time, etc that we were expending in the region, it was going to happen eventually.

I personally was not opposed to the actual war itself. I think it served several purposes. In my opinion the problem was the lack of support/failure to prepare for the long term. Clearly the U.S. has the most formidable and capable military in the world. There was no doubt before or after that the U.S. could "go it alone" in terms of the actual conflict. It's what came/comes after that required the support of the international community, and that has led to the ongoing problems.

Had their been UN involvement from the start in the rebuilding process, the U.S. would have been able to ease itself out of the process, at least on the surface, and appear less like an occupier and more like the liberator it has tried to be. The longer we stay, the more it plays into the hands of the idea that the U.S. intends to run the country.

Quite frnakly I believe from a strategic standpoint, the war was fought expertly. The use of air power and speed with which the ground forces were able to move is a testament to modern warfare. Precision weapons were used to a degree that has never been seen before. U.S. forces were able to "do more with less" by maximizing the use of technololgy. While any civilian casualties are regrettable, when viewed statistically the overall number of casualties on both sides is remarkably small considering the fact that we're talking about occupying an entire country, with the bulk of combat being fought in urban, heavily populated areas.


The single biggest failure is the lack of preperation for the latter stages. Now we've dug ourselves a hole we cannot climb out of. We've created this mess, and we're unable to free ourselves from it based upon our insistence to go it alone. The best option in my mind at this point is to allow the U.N. to be involved as heavily in the rebuilding process as possible to allow the U.S. to withdraw it's overt involvement.

But that's just me.