I think somebody has been reading my blog! Well, maybe not, but I tried to make this very point some time ago ,all be it less effectively!

The gist is: "Six months before, the world had cheered as the statues of the dictator came crashing down. The Americans had seemed heroic. But now things were going very badly. The occupation was chaotic, the American soldiers were hated and they were facing threats from the surviving supporters of the dictator, whose whereabouts were uncertain.

Washington seemed unwilling to pay the enormous bill for reconstruction, and the president didn't appear to have any kind of workable plan to manage the transition to democracy. European allies, distrustful of the arrogant American outlook, were wary of co-operating. To many, it looked like the victory had been betrayed, since the American values of democracy, equality and well-being seemed unlikely ever to emerge. That's how it looked in Germany in November, 1945."

Read the rest of the story
along with my piece, to put the recent developments in Iraq into Historic perspective.