[CyberAnt]

Well ... it took us 7 years in Japan. But ... look at the result. Japan is a healthy and thriving democracy.

Today, a guy named Tom Sullivan was subbing for Rush. He said that he was curious about what we did after the war ended in Japan. MacArthur went there in August of 1945, and we were still there until 1952. Tom said he was very surprised to see that Japan had the very same problems we have now in Iraq; looting, shooting, etc. Plus, as Tom pointed out, we didn't have any such thing as "smart bombs" so all the infrastructure was destroyed.

After ONLY 5 WEEKS - I don't know why people are expecting so much in such a short time. You simply cannot create a democracy in 5 weeks.

And ... our own democracy didn't happen in 5 weeks either.

[Tin-Legions]

I dont think we have a good comparison re. Japan and Germany's reconstruction versus Iraq.

1. Japan was allowed to keep it's emperor, that in itself gave "face" to much of the Japanese population and helped legitimize US rule.

2. Japan's ability to resist was crushed. Iraqi's and other Muslim fruitcakes have plenty of resistance left in them.

3. Japan had, and still has, a disciplined population that has a culture with a belief in the rule of the emperor and his law. Retaining the emperor was the crucial move in stabilizing Japan post war. No such parallel exists in Iraq.

4. Both Japan and Germany are not peopled with uneducated barbarians-(even though many Jews and Chinese may disagree). Force of law is usually enough to keep these populations in line. Force of arms is the ONLY thing that keeps most Muslim nations in line.

5. I agree that it will take time to establish order in Iraq, but the rule of law has never really existed in the Middle East. Our work is cut out for us.