Congratulations, everyone, on one of the most reasoned discussions I've seen on this topic.

I am one of those who believes that the decision to invade Iraq was correct at the time. All of the intelligence points to the fact that Hussein had WMD's which he shipped out (probably to Syria) during the run-up to the war. Of course, the administration couldn't fall back on this information when they were being called liars, because to do so would have begged the question of why we weren't invading Syria.

In fact, the threat of those weapons was one of the factors which got us into the mess we're in today. The war planners worked out all of the plans and logistics for the invasion, and once those plans were set in motion, they began work on planning the occupation. They figured they would have several weeks to get troops and supplies into place while the invasion plans were being executed. The commanders on the ground, fearing WMD attacks on their troops, pushed as fast as they could to disrupt the entire country and prevent those attacks. In doing so, they finished their job much faster than the planners had anticipated, and the occupation plans and supplies weren't in place yet. The momentum then swung to anarchy and the terrorists / insurgents.

What Iraq needs now, and what it's needed since the U.S. got there, is a strong, professional police force. Unfortunately, that is a tall order since Iraq has never had such a thing. Even an American, who grows up as a boy scout, is incorruptable, majors in law enforcement for four years, then attends a police academy emerges as a pretty worthless cop. He needs a year or two of learning from the old veterans before he can really be considered an asset. In Iraq, the old veterans are the biggest problem, especially where corruption is concerned.

We need solutions here, right? Ok, here goes. First, you try to get the very best, cream of the crop, Iraqi police from around the country. Then you throw them into special, newly-formed American military units made up of M.P.s and Military Intelligence, and you also attach some U.S. civilian cops, preferably with narcotics investigation experience. Each one of these units would be approximately platoon sized. Once a unit is formed, you send them all to the States for EXTENSIVE training. You bring in Israeli anti-terror experts, American police investigations experts, and anyone else you can think of who may be able to provide some real training in covert investigations, development of confidential sources, etc. Once the units are trained, you deploy them back to Iraq and spread them around the hotspots where they operate through their own military chain of command and definitely outside of the Iraqi police chain of command. Throw in a few regular units to provide security for these platoons along with some SF support to act on the intelligence they generate, and you have a decent chance of seriously decreasing the terrorist acts occuring in Iraq.

Of course, it would take a lot of time to get that plan set up right, and it may already be too late, since we'll probably be out of there in the next couple years if things don't take a turn for the better, but if we really are in it for the long haul, we need to initiate something like this, because regular army units aren't organized properly to provide domestic security, and the Iraqi police may never get there on their own.