Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to re: Discretion

re: Discretion
Robert — (archived)

Given that the occupying force is the same as the invasion force, I'm not sure how they could avoid looking and acting like the soldiers they are. They weren't trained for this duty; peace-keeping and nation-building is a specialty that's very different from fighting a war.

That said, I have to criticize the lack of planning that put those soldiers into this difficult position. It's not like this situation is a novelty--the US has led or participated in nine major nation-building missions since the end of WWII (see this RAND study: America's Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq). The whole occupation of Iraq has an air of being jury-rigged and improvised, as if the Bush Administration was so obsessed with attacking Iraq it couldn't spare a thought for what to do afterward...in a year and a half of planning the invasion.

To be fair, Tom has posted links to information suggesting that the presence of the US forces isn't as provocative as it might seem, and that much of the time their relations with the Iraqi people are smooth and relatively cordial. It's hard to see clearly what's going on in Iraq these days, and the fog of propaganda from both sides is as thick as London pea-soup. I'm cautious about buying into either the quagmire or the rosy scenario. Like most things, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

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