re: Dangerous times in Baghdad
After Saddam had been toppled, the US should have withdrawn, and placed 75 billion or so in a Swiss bank to be used by a legitimate government in Iraq when one came about, to be used for reconstruction.
Let a civil war rage and hope for the best? What would Baghdad be like then? It might be instructive to compare what the civilian casualties of this course would probably have been compared to the current course. Never mind the destruction of property and infrastructure.