To be entirely blunt, the United States' handling of the occupation of Iraq will likely go down in history as shining example of exactly how
not to occupy a country. It was an utter disaster. Despite overwhelming technological and numerical advantages they were totally unprepared for fighting a civil war, either announced or otherwise, and their military intervention almost always caused more problems than it solved. This is the view of experienced United States analysts and I consider it fact rather than opinion. They just didn't know what to do with the mess they found themselves in - in fact it's widely acknowledged they didn't even have a plan for how they would actually go about ensuring a peaceful occupation, assuming that the country would somehow be jolly happy to see them and fall into a comfortable democratic Westernised state, and then ignored the advice of allies who tried to help by telling them otherwise and giving tips on how to handle it.
On the plus side, it has effected extraordinarily drastic change in the way the situation and others like it has and have been tackled in almost every level of US military, political, procurement, diplomatic, investigative, contracting and management circles. They failed to come up with a strategy, true; but far worse would have been if they continued to do nothing about it other than bombing suspected insurgent locations and stirring up another hundred potential al Qaeda members every time. That's not to say that I think there is any excuse on this Earth which will ever exonerate George W. Bush and his administration for the deaths of one million people as a result of the war they started, but on the plus side, Iraq is now showing signs, however tentative, of having a real future.
It's a bit early to say they have won the battle just yet, however. They may have been able to stabilise their government for the moment, but the divisions in the state of Iraq and its cultural make-up run deep and ingrained after hundreds or thousands of years. All it would take is a radical figure gathering enough support to his cause and back goes the country into outright civil war and the hope so slowly building up once again shatters.
To be honest, the last thing the United States should be doing now is cutting and running. Barack Obama's domestic situation is such that he cannot do otherwise in the scope of reasonable politics - but another few years are I think necessary to make sure Iraq's insurgency is kept under for the duration it takes for genuine solidity of indigenous politics, solutions and military and police forces to come into place first. We'll have to see, but this is far from over, and while there is hope I still hold grave fears for what the future may bring if it's handled wrong by anyone.
Edited by CommanderJB, 10 February 2009 - 08:32.