I was wrong, so very, very wrong. What follows will bring down the wrath of many inhabitants of this board. So be it, the tone and verbiage here has become increasingly unbearable in many ways over the last year or so anyway.

I didn’t vote for Bush this time, nor Kerry. I couldn’t stand either one by that Tuesday in November.

When the decision to remove Hussien from power was announced I honestly believed that we were doing the right thing. Virtually every credible Intelligence agency worldwide agreed that the Iraqi government had WMD, with full intention of using them at some time.

And to add to that, Hussien was a brutal dictator who was slaughtering his own people wholesale. The former turned out to be a paper tiger, the latter a gruesomely vast understatement.

Now, I have come to believe the entire affair was mishandled from the beginning. Insufficient troops on the ground for the aftermath of what can only be described as a utter route of a poorly trained and equipped military. Very poor preparations for handling and administrating the civil side of the country, and either ignoring or dismissing local custom and tradition.

As far as I am concerned Rumsfield is an arrogant idiot, and Bush inept.

But, we’re there, like riding the Tiger we can’t seem to find a safe place to dismount. Since we broke it we have to put Humpty back together. And that requires time, personnel and not a small amount of money. And lives...................theirs and ours.

At the time I felt the citizenry would welcome American troops with open arms, which they did in the majority of Iraq. Then the ancient military proverb set in, FUBAR’ed. I won’t bother explaining that acronym, most people know it.

Lack of civil control led to virtual anarchy in many places, looting, criminals loose without any legal or social control, numerous revenge killings and so much more.

While our servicemen and women had all the good intentions in the world they had no idea of how to behave in the local culture. Nor are they trained for Civilian Adminstration and relations, they're soldiers, not Civil Servants. Which led to a growing resentment from the population. That eventually drove a significant percentage to the underground resistance movements, not as active participants for the majority, but tacit support. The type of support an underground resistance cannot survive without.

The actual fighting was easy. It usually is under these circumstances. But Hussien wasn’t stupid, psychotic, brutal beyond the pale, arrogant and delusional but not stupid. His Regime had few modern equals, as ruthless as Pol Pot, controlling as Stalin’s, wholesale slaughter as precise and regimented as Hitler’s.

No one can seize power and hold it as long as he did without a goodly measure of mental acuity. He knew his forces could not withstand American Military might, he built a network of fanatically loyal followers to go underground and begin the current guerilla warfare. I doubt that many of the original cells are left. But they began a campaign with hit and run attacks that are continued with increasingly more efficient tactics and effectiveness. Warfare that is extremely difficult overcome while maintaining the sort of Military presence and control that we, as Americans, find acceptable.

So, what can we do now?

I have no idea, but I know in my gut that it’s going to be a long, expensive and bloody mess that might have been avoided with proper preparations and planning. We’re going to bury a lot of good people, American and Iraqi before it’s over. Worse, for the long term, leaving a bitter taste in the throats of many people and nations around the world for a very long time to come.

Sooner or later the dime is going to drop on the next terrorist attack on American soil, and I have the sinking feeling the war cry will be “Revenge on the occupiers of Baghdad!”

Had the mission been properly planned, executed and followed up, the situation would not be as problematic, deadly and filled with a high possibility for dire consequence for the future as it is now.

So, fire away, those who were against, and for, when it began. I doubt it will have any effect o my opinion. But it will make for some interesting reading. Note, please spare us the long winded rants about the oil, Haliburton and all the other dreck conspiracy theories. They’ve been disproved sufficiently enough to satisfy most rational people. Any Military operation of this size has its share of financial misconduct. And we’re getting damn little oil from Iraqi fields now, about half on average of what Hussien’s regime was selling before it began, at a much higher price.