We are going to be in Iraq for at least a decade spending hundreds of billions of doallars and watching thousands of our young men and women die at the hands of a recalcitrant insurgency that has the support of a sizeable proportion of country's population.

This is not true. The vast majority of Iraqis want the liberation of their country to succeed, and do not want the Baathists back in charge.

We could have, instead been spending a few million enforcing sanctions that were, for all intents and purposes working as intended - with not a single American soldier in harm's way!

God, how easily we rewrite history. The sanctions on Iraq were the source of endless condemnation of the U.S. until the war became a more convenient target. this article was typical of many, many examples. Note that this writer puts the sanction death toll of children at 500,000. Overall deaths were placed as high as two million. IMO, the numbers are suspect, but these numbers were widely touted in the exact same places where the current WAG of 100,000 deaths from the war is now being touted.

Now I hear that sanctions were wonderful, and working like a charm! And I'm supposed to not have noticed this neck-snapping 180?

And for the record, we were spending one hell of a lot more than a "few million" shoring up the aftermath to the first Gulf War. Keep in mind our soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia as part of this program were what inspired the creation of al Qaeda. Do some research on the "No Fly Zone War."

Good to hear I'm just an "idiot." I suppose that's more comforting than the alternative.