[Miss Saigon]

I have no use for the press. They elevate themselves to some self defined intellectual/elite status, the fourth estate, but they are nothing more than sales people. Some of the used car variety. They pretend to be knowlegdeable because they write about things, but often lack even the most basic knowledge of their subject. I was glad when the Iraqi government took the BBC to task.

Sorry Paul. But in general I am not a fan of this profession.

Again, jumping ahead to Tommy Franks, what they didn't expect was for the Iraqi Army to just melt away. They thought that the Army would surrender, and then they would have a ready pool of labor to use in various things like policing and construction. Thus being able to immediately funnel money into the Iraqi economy by paying military salaries. Instead the Army just disappeared and this mucked up the plan really good.

As for the looting and such, I am generally a believer in forcefully dealing with those who break the law, but I suspect in this situation that might not have worked well.