US tanks pose in front of the "Hands of Victory" monument, Baghdad, 2003. Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain.In spring 2003, barely two weeks after the invasion of Iraq, one of the earlier columns in this series was perhaps rashly titled "A thirty-year war" (4 April 2003). It was a very pessimistic assessment, which both highlighted the military problems being experienced by American and British forces and suggested that the war would be counterproductive.
The United States was beginning to do the impossible, by increasing the popularity of Saddam Hussein in the region and leading more generally to ”gathering support for Iraq and the Iraqis, based on the firm belief that they are being subjected to a western conquest that will become a long-term subjugation.”
The column continued:
