"Use of force" doesn't mean the same as "initial victory". It means something much wider and more difficult to achieve, and which would have involvesd intelligent planning in advance and preparation. The failure to do that kind of work has meant thousands of dead among the occupying forces, and God knows how many dead Iraqis. And it is reducing to vanishing point the hope that out of all this will come an Iraq that is any better to live in then it was under Saddam.

There are all kinds of regimes around the world I'd love to see the back of. But I am sure that if the USA were to give them the same kind of treatment they have given to Iraq, the end result would probably be even worse than the present situation in country after country.

Maybe it's sometimes necessary to crack eggs to make an omelette - but you don't do it with a sledgehammer.