A large part of the US Media remembers Vietnam, that explains it.
Comparing how battle decisions are made, how the locals ambush the troops, how difficult it is to win the hearts when guns talk.

It all comes back to one issue: is it all worth it?

The problem is that it looks like the only way for it to have been worth it is to have Iraq become a true democracy, respectful of women, of freedom and to have the neighboring countries go through the same process.

But there have been a number of important mistakes, right from the start:

1) involving the UN which didn't approve of the war, therefore isolating the US.

2) thinking the Iraqis would welcome the soldiers with open arms.

3) not involving enough troops, which encourages the insurgents to regroup, hit and get dispersed in a country they know very well as they likely won't be followed.

and then, after occupation began:

4) send the Iraqi soldiers police back home, without paying them!!

5) still not organizing even local elections in the safest areas.

6) as time goes by, the insurgents (an interesting article about them in the Time magazine, but it looks like it's online only via a subscription) get more organized, more dangerous.

7) no WMD's found that would have justified a UN intervention (as there was no imminent threat to any other country).

8) Still no traces of Saddam; thousands of Iraqis have been killed or are permanently wounded and Saddam is still free, apparently giving orders in the west of Iraq.

All those things lead the US Media to indeed wonder if the Bush administration can seriously reshape the country according to our western values of democracy.

War is the worst possible solution because it brings all kinds of unpredictable outcomes, issues and consequences.

It's always possible to reduce taxes in a country, to influence it economy or to inject more money by increasing the debt or to redirect space policies or to reduce the pollution level, but you can't predict the outcome of a war if factors don't occure as expected and mistakes are made because wars cause too many deaths and destruction.

Raoul