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Originally Posted by steeljack
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#4 In no way can an alien culture rule a conqered nation without local help , MacArthur prooved this in 45 in Japan by insisting the Emperor stay on the throne, when many wanted him to stand trial for war crimes. Bush/Blair made the mistake of disbanding many local infrastrucures including the police and army. Insensitivites to local culture by ignorant/uneducated occupying forces can do more harm than bullets (the bivouacing of the US Marines on the site of Babylon and excavating the site as a source of sand bag fill is nothing more than pure vandalism).
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On the contrary, Japan and Germany were great success stories. A couple of democratic nations, neither of which has threatened world peace in the last 60 years. Of course, it took time and patience to bring this about. The Iraqis deserve no less.
One can argue whether or not it was a good idea to disband the Iraqi military and police. Clearly the idea behind that was de-Bathification. The army definitely needed a make-over. Retraining has gone too slowly for the critics but it is beginning to pay off. The police forces remain problematic. Corruption and infiltraion by insurgents. They cannot yet be trusted to do the job.
Three years ago the U.S. Marines went to Babylon at the request of the Iraqi Ministry of Antiquities, who feared the site might be looted. The marines set up camp on the periphery. Some land was bulldozed for helicopter landing sites and the perimeter of the base secured.....(hello, sandbags). In short order this camp was turned over to other allied forces - mainly the Poles. All personnel were told to disturb the site as little as possible. As it turns out, Saddam encroached upon Babylon far more than any troops. He had the site excavated in order to build a visitors center and during the 1980's reconstruction of Nebuchadnezzar's palace, thought it would be a great idea to put his mark on Babylon by stamping his name into the bricks of the palace walls. The inscription reads - "The City of Babylon was reconstructed during the era of the victorious Saddam Hussein, President of the Republic, protector of the great Iraq, the modernizer of its renaissance and builder of its civilization." Modest kind of guy, eh?
Our military personnel are not the ignorant, uneducated boobs as portrayed in some elite circles. If one looks at the whole picture, I think they've bent over backwards in an effort to do the right thing under extremely difficult circumstances.