The US Flag was GIVEN to the Marines BY the Iraqis in the crowd to put up and it was the US commanders who thought it needed to be taken down and replaced by the Iraqi flag. However, the Iraqis wanted a pre-Saddam Iraqi flag to put up, so that took a while to find.

This is seen both on the live shots and was relayed by Marines and 3ID soldiers/officers I know to me. I trust them over still photos.

In short, there was nothing “staged” and the peace was a reality. Just as in Europe after WWII, the needs of the populace outstripped our ability to provide and many thought the Iranian or AQ/Ba’athist ideas for an Islamic state were better than a democracy which respected all parties.

The situations are much more in parallel than you think. Replace communism with Iranian backing for one. Also add a “everything must be fixed now and it is someone else’s fault that it is not (vs realizing that they are most of the problem)” mentality of the Arab world. Finally, there is the “why doesn’t everyone want X fixed” (as in the coal example).

That was also my experiences in Iraq. Iraqi leaders would tell me “why can this not be made and shipped to our ports in a week?” They were serious about this. It takes a cargo ship almost 30 days to get from the East Coast of the USA to the Gulf and then it has to be unloaded. But first the item must be bid on, produced, inspected, accepted, re-inspected at destination…. you get the idea. Though one Iraqi general told me that when he was a younger officer (in the 1990s), all they had to do was go to Russia with money and a week or so later the ship would be coming with the weapons. I told him thanks for confirming the intel.

He did not get the joke.

Shoulda watched it live like I did. The crowd was a lot bigger than in the pic the anti-war sites claim was doctored. History Channel has some interesting shows about the invasion as well, and you can see the crowds lining the streets as the 3rd ID moved in. It’s not like there’s a shortage of pics from GIs on the web either, but if it doesn’t fit the vast imperial conspiracy narrative…why look?

Yes. I also recall that, when the full picture, as opposed to the cropped version, was published, you saw that the statue was actually being pulled down by a US tank (or tractor), with the “enthusiastic populace” just hanging on the line for appearance.

That was when I knew that a lot of the “peace” was being stage managed for the populace “back home” rather than for reality on the ground.

Two actions: The Marshal plan and the formation of the European Iron and Steel Community (the forerunner of the EU) helped to bring Europe out of tht problem.

The situations, in my opinion, were too different for parallels, one way or the other, to have much meaning in Iraq.

Round about zero. How many US soldiers are getting killed in Iraq? Almost 4000 so far, and there is zero sign of progress towards political reconciliation.

Germany never got sucked into a civil war in the aftermath of WWII. Iraq is in a bitter civil struggle.

Other than that, you don’t really have a point. If there were 4000 US soldiers dead in Germany over the first 6 years of a military occupation, people would be storming the White House with pitchforks and torches to bring the troops home, and let the Germans get on with it.

It was a lot easier to hate the people you disagree with when their numbers were small, like back when Bush had approval ratings in the 90%s but now it is like you have to hate EVERYBODY lol