ALRIGHT! Whats going ON here?

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

On the March 16, 2003, broadcast of CBS' Face the Nation, Cheney stated: "I think [the war will] go relatively quickly." When host Bob Schieffer pressed the vice president to offer a more precise estimate of how long the war would take, Cheney replied: "Weeks rather than months." On NBC's Meet the Press the same day, Cheney stated, "my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators [by the Iraqi people]."

In a February 7, 2003, appearance at Aviano Air Base in Italy, Rumsfeld projected that the Iraq war "could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

In a February 13, 2002, Washington Post op-ed, Ken Adelman, at the time a member of the Defense Policy Board, stated: "I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk. Let me give simple, responsible reasons: (1) It was a cakewalk last time; (2) they've become much weaker; (3) we've become much stronger; and (4) now we're playing for keeps."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200508260004

Bush is not quoted there

But, I do think that the former struggle in Iraq suggested that the Iraqi forces would lay down their arms and run like they did before. And, in many ways they were correct - the Iraqi forces were relatively quickly defeated The problem came from the insurgency factions, which I believe were mostly unrelated to the official Iraq army - though I could be wrong.

In any event, the soldiers were in fact met as liberators. But, then Rumsfeld's lack of any coherent plan to win the peace allowed the insurgency factions to rise. I do think, and I base this on the people I know who have been there, that the vast majority of Iraqi people are happy SH is gone and like the American forces in general, but would also like for the place to be peaceful enough for them to be gone. I think it is important to remember that not all or even the majority or a significant minority of Iraqis are attacking our soldiers. Rather, our soldiers and innocent Iraqis are being targeted by the insurgents (on edit) but that is a different battle than the original invasion which lead to the fall of the government.

On edit - this goes along with why I loathe the Bush Administration. They seemingly always start off well and then cannot close the deal. Just like in Katrina - the declaring of the disaster area ahead of time was a good thing and then four days of no troops. Similarly, a rahter impressive invasion and taking control of Iraq and then BAM - no plans in place at all other than saying it was going to take a long time. Incompetent idiots.