Iraq: being wise before the event

Listening to the row about the Daily Telegraph‘s leaked Foreign Office pre-invasion paper warning about the lack of post-invasion planning, I was thinking “well, it wasn’t just the Foreign Office”. And then I remembered a wonderful piece James Fallows had written in The Atlantic way back in November 2002. It’s here (but you need to be a subscriber to the print edition to get the full text). The standfirst says it all, though. It reads:

“Going to war with Iraq would mean shouldering all the responsibilities of an occupying power the moment victory was achieved. These would include running the economy, keeping domestic peace, and protecting Iraq’s borders — and doing it all for years, or perhaps decades. Are we ready for this long-term relationship?”