That being said the basic premise expressed in the article is valid. Because the Iraqui populace escaped (relatively) unscathed from the war process, rebuilding is not analogous and we're dealing with a different post-war civilian psyche. New history is being made.


That's right Iraq is different, but it is no reason to completely throw out the old models of Germany and Japan or even some of the newer models in the past decade. I personally find it disconcerting that this administration which started out being opposed to Nation-building missions did not look at previous nation-building missions to project estimates of what it would cost in dollars and blood when they took on Iraq. I can forgive miscalculations, but have a hard time swallowing no calculations or having numbers pulled out of thin air. I still think the war in Iraq was worth doing, I hope for the Iraqi's sake (and ultimatly the stability of the Middle East) we can help Iraq pull a democracy out of the hat.

-Steve G.