Iraqi Occupation

In reading a post on The Buck Stops Here blog, about the long road of Iraqi reconstruction, I was reminded of the quite rosy pre-war predictions by the administration about the length of occupation. Reading this now is absolutely shocking. Shocking in how wrong the predictions were, and shocking that I appear to have had a better understanding of what would happen over there than the administration professionals did because I could see the stupidity.

Some officials at the Pentagon and State Department tell Newsweek they hope to be able to withdraw U.S. troops in as little as 30 to 90 days after President Saddam Hussein's ouster...But more "realistically," says a Pentagon official, the talk is of a maximum five-to-six-month occupation...Most outside experts insist any Iraq occupation will be costly and messy, lasting a year at the very least.

Appalling.