These are all important points, Tracy. And there is no doubt in my mind that some military presence/control is absolutely needed.
My major concern is that the military may be in top control and Wolfowitz's designs behind all this.

There may also be a problem (I expect there will be) with Wolfowitz's choice of people who are all exiles (many for over 30 years). These will naturally have the upper hand at election time, to the point that fully qualified individuals may opt not to participate.

In any case it won't be long before we know what happens. I just heard CNN repeating the story of governance while Saddam still at large, and that can only mean the Wolfowitz 'plan' if it is allowed to happen.


>Some personal thoughts to add to your comments:
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>Some Iraqi civilians will be grateful, others will be hidind and searching for new means of wealth and status (ex republican guards, govt, terrorist supporters, etc - these people will have no means of support for sometime and will be desperate)
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>Iraq is also comprised of many different groups that are not accustomed to living at peace with each other except under military control to do so. There will be quite a period of unrestraint and strife if no military control is in place during the adjustment phase. Some of these groups hold century old grudges that they are accustomed to keeping by culture. The people are not accustomed to having the freedom to speak as they will and do as they will and the new laws for security must be put in place with the force to enforce them. I imagine there will be a lot of lobbying for power in the new government initially because the democratic process will be completely new to them.
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>>>> One thing is certain - this war is nothing like the situation post-WWII in Japan or Germany or Italy and it is not reasonable to apply that model to this situation.
>>>
>>>I am not sure if this situation is different than Japan and Germany. What makes you think it is different?
>>
>>1) There was no U.N. back then;
>>2) There was no international setup for the distribution of humanitarian aid back then;
>>3) WWII was a very lengthy war with virtually all infrastructure destroyed in Japan and Germany;
>>4) The people of Iraq will be grateful (as opposed to belligerent);
>>5) Iraq has natural resources of high value to allow it to rebuild/grow on its own. Neither Japan nor Germany had such opportunity.
>>6) The economy of the world operates differently now. Businesses can now do what only government could do back then.
>>
>>Those are some major reasons.