Home By Christmas

Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Those of us without the memory of a goldfish will recall that the US and British armies were supposed to go into Iraq, destroy their chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, and leave quickly. I don't think any government official said explicitly that the soldiers would be home by Christmas (a common recruiting slogan in previous wars), but that has more to do with the political correctness of the holiday than with how quick we were told the war would be. There was supposed to be a pro-American democracy, that is, a docile and obedient American colony, established almost immediately. I didn't believe any of this, but it is what we were told.
Let me put forward another example, one that I have mentioned before. In 1898, the US took control of the Philippines from Spain during the Spanish-American War. The spoken intention of the American government was to give the country its independence almost immediately, because America, of course, isn't interested in empire. The official occupation ended up lasting until 1945, and the US still has enormous economic control over the Philippines. The low estimate is that 200,000 Filipinos died from the war and subsequent occupation, which is comparable to the Lancet numbers for Iraq. It should be obvious now that Britain and America won't leave Iraq for a long time, and then only when they have complete control over the country's wealth.