Disarming the entire country should have been job one! As it is now you can't tell the bad guys from the good guys. So until proven otherwise all should be assumed bad. Anyone with a gun that's not a US soldier should be shot on sight. You wont get all the guns but you'll get most of em', along with the bad guys carrying them.
Then you start rebuilding the infrastructure and government. And if anybody even looks at a US soldier the wrong way they get dead immediately. Whether they're man, woman or child. This "We're not at war with the Iraqi people, only the Iraqi leaders" business went out the window when terrorists started coming out of the woodwork of the homes of local Iraqi citizens.
They are the enemy, or they are supporting the enemy, and should be dealt with in the harshest possible way. Only then will you truly have their attention. Once you do, then you can start with the humanitarian efforts. And every single penny of expense we incur in the process should be reimbursed with interest in oil.
But before any of that could be done we'd first have to get 90% of the photo journalists the heck out of there, and limit the access to those that are allowed to remain. This liberal kinder gentler' warfare BS is just that, BS!
"Our enemies may be irrational, even outright insane, driven by nationalism, religion, ethnicity, or ideology. They do not fear the United States for its diplomatic skills or the number of automobiles and software programs it produces. They respect only the firepower of our tanks, planes, and helicopter gunships." – Ronald Reagan
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