Worries about just such scenarios are part of the reason why GB1 did not support the popular uprisings after GW1. He wanted the Iragi military to overthrow Saddam while maintaining law and order. It didn't work. We betrayed people we encouraged to revolt and left them to suffer under sanctions for over a decade. This was not a foreign policy success.

Everyone has to realize that waiting for perfect solutions rather than simply trying for something better is a prescription for failure in the real world. It is also often a prescription for enabling terror, tyranny, and abuse.

It should also be realized that fighting a war and peacekeeping/policing at the same time is a hard choice. I think we can do better and the Museum and library lootings are some obvious oversights. On the other hand we did protect many key resources that the naysayers said we risked destroying by going to war. Just as we put the lessons of battles since GW1 to good use in coming up with a better plan for GW2, I'm sure the guys currently in charge will come up with better ways of dealing with similar situations in the future. It's called continuous improvement and the US military has been very good at this lately.

Regards,
Mark