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[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

He might be brilliant and know far more about Iraq than all of us put together, and yet be entirely unrealistic about how easy it is to rebuild a functioning government in a place like Iraq once you have removed the existing regime. I think it's far-fetched to think that the Bush Administration could rebuild Iraq. Also, I don't understand why he thinks Obama "let Iran into the government." A lot of Iraqis, the majority, are Shi'a. (I gather he is Sunni.) Iran has influence because it is Shi'a. Saddam Hussein's regime was undemocratic, Sunni, and antagonistic to Iran. Any democratic regime that followed was going to be much more sympathetic to Iran. Because democracy. It wasn't Obama's idea to introduce democracy to Iraq.

Anyway, I appreciate his perspective, but there are a lot of people who were unrealistic about what invading Iraq and removing the regime could reasonably accomplish, and maybe he was one of them. It's not like Iraq has a tradition of democratic power-sharing between different factions.

As to letting Iran in, I asked him. As to reestablishing the country, he was still there when Obama took over. Seems like he thought things were gelling until we bailed.