So, The Horrible Truth: About Iraq

We could not win in Vietnam for the exact same reason that Prince John could not win against Robin Hood. There was plenty of cover, and Robin Hood know the terrain better than Prince John. During Vietnam, the cities were relatively safe, so that much of the civilian population could be protected.

In Iraq, we were going to take the countryside very quickly. But to take the cities, we were going to have to go street by street, with snipers on every rooftop. The enemy could melt into the shadows because they knew the terrain better that we did. And we were going to have to do all of this in the midst of a civilian population who had nowhere else to go. The civilian causalities were going to be enormous. It is to the credit of our armed forces that the civilian casualties have been relatively low. Even so, I think over 200,000 civilians have died. I cannot bring myself to add up the figures.

Do Not Blame The Armed Forces.
One of the bedrock creeds of our democracy is that the President is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and must be obeyed by all military personnel. Commanders can argue about a plan before it happens, but after the decision is made, it is obeyed, no matter how stupid the decision is. And during any war, no officer active or retired is going to discuss the war with an outsider, because to do so might harm the war effort. (I think Britain joined us because they owed us one, and they wanted to help keep the causalities as low as possible.)

Do Not Whine To Me That You Did Not Know That There Were No Weapons Of Mass Destruction.
We all knew, because the UN weapons inspectors told us, over and over again, and more frantically each time. I read it in the Mercury News, which is NOT a world class newspaper. It was on TV over and over again.