From the BBC Online
Dated Monday March 21
No "Vietnam" but much to be done
By John Simpson
BBC world affairs editor
In the first of his weekly columns for the BBC News website, John Simpson assesses the difficulties of achieving unity in post-Saddam Iraq.
It is a pretty much unbroken rule: wars never turn out as the people who plan them expect they will.
If you look back at the things which supporters of the invasion of Iraq said in March 2003, you will not find they predicted any of the following:
- that after two years, coalition soldiers would be dying at the rate of almost two a day, and Iraqi civilians at around 20 a day
- that the road between Baghdad and the airport would be probably the most dangerous stretch of ground in the world
- that in one of the world's great oil-producing countries, most Iraqis would have to buy their fuel on the black market because of shortages at the pumps
- that in some areas of the country, women would be forced to wear Islamic dress by gangs of religious extremists
- that a major international report would suggest that Iraq could see "the biggest corruption scandal in history".
Yet the invasion's opponents did not necessarily get it right either.
Read more.