Since it's not too soon to begin worrying about post-war Iraq, let's do that. This administration is tremendous when it comes to planning. If anything, they sometimes rely too heavily on their plans, and not enough on their wits. This is all right when, as in this war, you hold all the cards that count. As one Marine put it just before they pushed off, Saddam has a lot that could make their lives miserable, but nothing that could stop them. But the administration has a tendency to get sidetracked and surprised when it comes to politics and diplomacy. They had policy plans ready to roll out during the transition after the 2000 elections, only to almost lose the election by losing focus, and costing themselves large parts of that transition. They similarly let themselves get caught up in the Security Council Tango, shortening our own timelines, the diplomatic results of which are still undetermined.

Jed Babbin has a piece on his blog from yesterday suggesting that many senior Iraqis are headed out of the country, taking or burning valuable archives along the way. If we know about it now, it would be a damn shame, unforgivable really, to let them avoid us. The WMDs were our main reason for waging this war, benefits to the Iraqi people notwithstanding, and it would be nice to actually get the goods on them and their European and Russian patrons.

Secondly, the sooner the new Iraqi provisional government makes its appearance, the better. It will need to gain international recognition. This means recognition from a large number of countries, but it also provides another chance to drag this whole mess back into the UN with the French/US equivalent of a political convention's credentials fight. We can't let that happen, but it might be worthwhile researching a similar problem with the Chinese Security Council seat.