A bit of a rant, sorry

I have a confession to make: I have been neglecting my responsibilities.  I blame Saddam Hussein.  If he had not been such an evil dictator I would not now be so fascinated by Iraq-related blogs.  I'm a bit behind the times, I only found out about the Baghdad Blogger a short while ago when he was on Click Online, and I didn't start seriously reading his blog until a couple of weeks ago.  But when I did start, I couldn't stop.  I've been sitting up all stupid hours reading the archives (and following links and stuff) when I should have been in bed asleep.  And now I find there's a book of it.  I could have hinted to somebody that I wanted the book for Christmas and I could have been reading it in bed instead of hunched over the computer screen.  I've also been reading Riverbend's Baghdad Burning which also has a hold over me - her portrayal of the anguish that ordinary Iraqis go through is compelling. Anyway, I want to say this: It seems to me that the US has made a total stuff-up of managing post-war Iraq.  This is not a new opinion but it has been reinforced by what I've read in the blogs.  It was completely apparent from the first few days after Bush declared "major combat over" that they had NO PLANS WHATSOEVER for what to do next.  I read somewhere that some USA bigwig said the reason they didn't plan was (something to the effect that) they didn't know what the situation would be after the war.  Well, duh!  That's why you do RESEARCH, that's why you get the UN involved, that's why you work with people from other countries who have a clue about the culture.  It was REALLY DUMB of Bush to just go charging in with a cobbled-together "coalition" and a phoney pretext.  He may be able to fool enough of his own populace to get himself re-elected but every day it looks more and more as though he has just played into the hands of Osama bin Laden and his ilk by failing to plan the "what to do next" stuff. Okay, yes, Saddam had to go, should have gone years ago in fact, but the way Bush did it was completely wrong.  He should have worked with the UN instead trying to dictate to it, and there should have been Plan A, Plan B etc all the way up to Plan Z for the post-war phase, and all of those plans should have included some CONSULTATION fer chrissakes. I've just remembered something I heard years ago, just before the end of the Cold War I think, and it chills me to think of it now.  Somebody, I can't remember who, predicted that World War III would not be about USA vs Communist Russia, it would be over the Middle East.  Right now I can just about see how it could happen.  (If I were a conspiracy theorist I would suggest that Cheney is behind the whole thing and Iraq has been stuffed up on purpose to start WWIII so that the USA can win it and the Cheney gang can take over the whole world.  Fortunately I'm not a conspiracy theorist.) Okay, I've got all that off my chest, I'll go and do something useful now.