A different way the Iraq war could have been handled

I found an interesting article about a different vision for the Iraq war. A much more sensible way it could have been handled. Keep in mind, the legitmacy of the invasion is not the topic, it already happened, this is just a view from a former advisor during pre-invasion planning of how the war could have been handled better. What are your thoughts?

An Alternate Plan for Iraq

This has nothing to do with the topic, but I just wanted to comment on your avatar. Thats an awesome pic. Im from Charlotte, but the military has me stuck in Utah....I miss the Q.C....



[edit on 20-3-2007 by PokeyJoe]

It is always easy for people to set back and judge an event after the event has taken place. In football terminology theyre called monday morning quarterbacks lol. Could things have been handled differently? Sure but there was no way of knowing that Zarqawi was going to initiate a sectarian war against the Shia. I just read an article about the insurgents using "new" tactics, having children ride in the cars that are going to explode at check points.
In fact here is the article
Its really tough to fight a war with someone that is not afraid to die and would use women and children to get car bombs through check points.
Im kind of torn regarding my feelings on this war because i feel that no matter what we do now, its a catch 22.
The longer we stay, the longer the bombings will go on but if we pull out now there would be a huge power vacuum, the president would be dead inside of a week and Iraq would be as unstable as it ever was.
The most we could hope for is that the training of the Iraq National Guard speeds up and they can hold together if and when we do finally leave.

Originally posted by Kr0n0s
It is always easy for people to set back and judge an event after the event has taken place. In football terminology theyre called monday morning quarterbacks lol. Could things have been handled differently? Sure but there was no way of knowing that Zarqawi was going to initiate a sectarian war against the Shia. I just read an article about the insurgents using "new" tactics, having children ride in the cars that are going to explode at check points.
In fact here is the article
Its really tough to fight a war with someone that is not afraid to die and would use women and children to get car bombs through check points.
Im kind of torn regarding my feelings on this war because i feel that no matter what we do now, its a catch 22.
The longer we stay, the longer the bombings will go on but if we pull out now there would be a huge power vacuum, the president would be dead inside of a week and Iraq would be as unstable as it ever was.
The most we could hope for is that the training of the Iraq National Guard speeds up and they can hold together if and when we do finally leave.

Hindsight is always 20/20, I'm not saying it isnt. But I think if this man had been listened to a bit more closely and his ideas taken into account, the mess would be cut in half at least along with cost in lives and money. A lot of these problems of the insurgency could have been avoided if we hadnt disbanded the entire Iraqi army and started from scratch. I'm willing to bet, but cant confirm, that a good portion of these insurgents ar ex-army bitter about being put out of work by the US and Coalition. This changed my opinion of this war being about ideology and more about sociology. We should have planned the war to contour to Iraqi needs and wants. This in my opinion, could have saved us this bitter taste in our mouths, and aches in our bellies.