i have to agree with adolph, mostly because he is smarter than me. while i do not believe the vast majority of what the government tells me, i do believe that life for the average iraqi is pretty crappy.

my only hope is that this action, once completed, returns the country to it's people, and not just handpicked powerbrokers installed by the US. we have quite history of placing people in power who are no better or more just than saddam, they're just willing to play ball.

maybe this is unrealistic, but it seems to me that if the UN had decided this issue was worth fighting for, and that they meant it when they said iraq must be disarmed, the combined force of those countries being parked outside iraq may have led to a much shorter conflict, if any. standing up to the US, Brits and Australians is one thing, knowing that if you can just bog the war down enough, and make it messy enough, maybe the will of your enemy will change, political presure will win out, and they'll go home. i think most of the iraqi leaders are power hungry enough to take that chance. but if you throw in a few more industrialized nations that scenario goes away and you're faced with certain, untimely death. that may have changed a few minds.