Also, technically, the justification of it was because they violated the ceasefire agreements of Desert Storm. (The ceasefire became null when they violated the agreements of it. It wasn’t a new war as far as we were concerned, but a continuation of Desert Storm. There violated the No-fly Zone, Weapons inspections, fired on US aircraft (futile as it was), etc. Albeit the ceasefire was not a unilateral agreement, I think, Saddam violated it before we. And the UN is fast becoming anti US anyway and is not looking out for us so why let them tie our hands.)

Besides the point is not weather we should have invaded Iraq. That is a mute point. (Hind site is 20/20). The question is, do we set a timetable for withdrawal at the request of the government there. The obvious answer to me is no. Why would we? As long as they want us to stay- we aught to stay on our terms. And as long as leaving may pose a threat to the US, we ought to leave on our terms. Heck, we just barely got the yellow cake out and who knows what else there is to clean. When we are sure that there is no way the terrorists can use the situation in Iraq to hurt us, then we can leave.

And though the Japanese weren’t as suppressed as Iraq, the Germans were. Try hiding a Jew in your house in WWII Germany, or in fact being a Jew or any number of other people who Hitler had exterminated. Try speaking your mind in WWI Germany. WWII Germany and Iraq are very similar.

As far as being at war with the “people” of a country, instead of the dictator. I fail to see much difference between Hitler and Sadaam. Hitler was elected as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Sadaam took power by force but also with a lot of popular support. That is the only real difference. Once in power, there is no real difference. Germany never attacked us either.

As far as occupiers, we are not in Iraq contrary to the will of the government there. The want us there. WE ARE ONLY REJECTING A TIMETABLE for withdrawal. They haven’t asked us to leave. They have simply asked us to set a date and in effect let our enemies there know how long to LIE LOW, STOCKPILE WEAPONS, AND PLAN BEFORE THEY BURST UPON THE SCENE TO REAP HAVOC ON THE IRAQIS and the democratic leaders there. – Upon which time, you can be sure, if the government survives a coup, they will ask for our help, and unless Obama is the president, (God Help us) we will be going back and have to start from scratch with a more powerful enemy.

KEY POINT: The Iraqi gvt. HAS NOT ASKED US TO LEAVE. Therefore we are not the occupiers that the Islamic extremists want to convince the world we are. (though even if they do ask us to leave, we need to make sure doing so won’t facilitate an attack on the US in any way.

BTW, have we found all of the yellow cake?

- MacArthur had a belief in that his – and by proxy the American – presence as Supreme Commander was a holy one. This is unlikely our own Iraqi “Ambassador” which made a huge mess before he was replaced.

- Some of these [several hundred U.S. civil servants as well as military personnel] effectively wrote a first draft of the Japan Constitution, which the Diet [Japanese legislative] then ratified after a few amendments. With Iraq, it was the other way around. We advised them on what to write in the constitution, but they wrote it from ground up.

- Douglas MacArthur and his SCAP staff played a primary role to exonerate Emperor Sh?wa and all members of the imperial family implicated in the war. Need I to say “debaathification”, where the members of Saddam’s party was guilty by association, and strictly forbidded from serving in any leadership positions?

- Above the political and economic control SCAP had for the seven years following Japan’s surrender [, 1945 until 1952], SCAP also had strict control over all of the Japanese media.

I could not find, quickly, any article that go into depth on Japaneses’ voting process, like we saw with Iraq. I suppose from the comment that we wrote most of their constitution, they do not have as much options as Iraqi had. Oh yes, and we formally turned over the sovereignty to Japanese when the Treaty of San Francisco between the Allied Powers and Japan, came into force on April 28, 1952. We already turned over sovereignty to Iraqi as soon as they approved their constitution.