>Is it reasonable to expect a severely dysfunctional society traumatized by 26 years of totalitarianism to heal in 5 months
According to a number of top U.S. officials in the run-up to the war, yes. Remember estimates that our total dollar cost would be in the single digits of billions, with US troops almost totally gone by the fall of 2003, and a functinion Iraqi government with market economy, robust oil exports, and well on the way to infrastructure reconstruction within a couple of years? I'll grant that Bush himself never uttered those words, nor did anyone serious in the military think that way, but there were plenty of political appointees OSD elsewhere inside the Beltway who did.
The fact that the occupation and reconstruction has been much harder than advertised doesn't mean the costs we've paid aren't worth it, but, if you're going to criticize war opponents for having unrealistic expectations of what "going well" would mean, I hope you were willing to criticize those ridiculously rosy forecasts before the war too.
Current Events » in reply to Instant gratification
re: Instant gratification -- both sides want it
The whole thread (31 posts)
- Iraqi troops attack insurgency
- It seems that the Iraqi insurgency is not growing weaker
- The American deaths raise the total to 12 reported since Monday