the only really big and stupid mistake we made was not executing Moqtada al-Sadr and destroying his "Army" on site.

Well, okay Dan. Good luck convincing people that the only big mistkae we made in Iraq was not executing Sadr. Really, really good luck with that one.

Or how long are we just going to watch this crap occur? And then, should the anti-war party succeed soon, we pull out - and, following a bloodbath, an Iranian stooge succeeds because only Iran can provide the firepower and logistics for the Shia to dominate?

And then...? Hezbollah and Iran join hands, while the rest of the world gratifies itself with "Down with USA! We Told You So!"

And meanwhile, the Russians, French, and Chinese just laugh and laugh...

Well, hopefully once the hippies and their drones are gone, things will return to a more natural perspective. Or else they could become the generation of Americans who, their parents having secured the world for them, like proper prodigals pissed it all away in a narcissistic fantasy of world-historical, self-inflicted proportions.

Actually, that would make pretty good future reading, so I'm kind of torn. Fucking morons though, undoubtedly.

The Iraqi army was not dissolved so much as it spontaneously decomposed. The decision not to continue to pay the armed forces is another matter, but frankly, the whole Ba'ath structure required pulling down where it didn't spontaneously disintegrate, so this is just one more thing. Or perhaps we should have perpetuated the Sunni officer corps vs. Shiite dog infantry? That would not have been wise either.

Secondly, the corruption of the police and the "second command structure" that ITM points out only underscores a fact that surprisingly few people are capable of inferring about the Iraq "quagmire": the only really big and stupid mistake we made was not executing Moqtada al-Sadr and destroying his "Army" on site. The alternative? He has now become a kingmaker - but since he's an Iraqi, he's not competent enough to pull it off, so instead he just warps the whole would-be system and makes it irreprable by reason and reasonable methods alone.

And all the while, the Democrats carp, despite the fact that even IRAQIS can't quite pull the house down on their own heads, much as they'd apparently love to.

But keep your chins up, morons; we'll be there for a while.

One could argue that the force could be vetted in place, simply weeding out the bad apples. Presumably, the report will explain why that's not feasible.

Here's a wild guess:
75+% of the force is made up of "bad apples" given that the police force is just a cover for sectarian militias.

Heh. True that. Still, as the several blockquoted paragraphs that follow make clear, it's actually true in this instance.

Was that supposed to be funny? Because I laughed.

In Pentagonese, I think that's one long, hyphenated word.

One could argue that the force could be vetted in place, simply weeding out the bad apples. Presumably, the report will explain why that's not feasible.